


The Kitsune of Takach-Taki

by Mechasonic9000



Category: Hyperdimension Neptunia, Overlord - Maruyama Kugane & Related Fandoms
Genre: Mild Sexual Content, Mixmash, Other, Rating: M, Rebirth
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-27
Updated: 2018-11-01
Packaged: 2019-08-08 10:41:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 27,866
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16427807
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mechasonic9000/pseuds/Mechasonic9000
Summary: A successful video game programmer who struggles for a promotion falls into despair when her one chance slips away from her. in her self-destructive attitude, her life is taken from her but is given a second chance in a new world. A world filled with monsters and powerful beings. Can she make it here in this new world, or will she fail?





	1. Prologue: Welcome to the world.

A figure begins to stir and slowly sits up mumbling something. “I don't want you to eat my last muff...in?” The figure looks around the room a little confused and turns on a bedside lamp. It was a woman with reddish orange hair and piercing red eyes. She pulls the covers off of her and stands up. She was sleeping in a T-shirt that was a little small on her. As well as some panties. 

She rubs the sleep out of her eyes and walks into the bathroom. She stares herself in the mirror and slaps her face. “Time to wake up Niraya this is the day that you get that promotion!” She takes a deep breath and throws up in the sink. “Oh god, why am I so nervous all of a sudden. My project was shown to be the better choice from the test builds. Surely nothing can go wrong with this presentation!”

She quickly slaps herself again. “Get ahold of yourself! You deserve this promotion after all those sleepless nights you put in to get the build ready to show off to the boss man himself!” She cleans up the mess she made before going about her normal routine. Once finished she quickly gets her clothes situated using the mirror to ensure everything was perfect. simple gray suit and dress pants. She just prefers pants over skirts.

Once she had everything squared away she gets in her car and drives to work. It wasn’t a long trip as they had recently changed buildings. She was very thankful for that as it was a four hour trip to work. She parks her car and gets out only to notice the parking lot was empty. “wai...CRAP! I’m A FEW HOURS EARLY!!” she hears a vehicle pull in an stop next to her. “Early again I see. You know I don't get here till 7:45 right?”

Niraya looks at the person who was talking it was her boss. An elderly gentleman who is roughly in his early 70s. He had a large grin on his face and his emerald eyes showed a youthful soul behind that smile. “I'm sorry boss. It's been a routine of mine for so long it's hard to break it.” The old man chuckles. “Well, you can help me get things up and running then.” He rolls up the window and parks his car before heading to the main building.

Niraya walks up right behind him and follows him inside. The boss was swift on his feet for an old man quickly turning on all the lights and booting up the PCs. Niraya helps out as best she could but it was clear the old man was better at this. 

Once the lights and computers were powered on she sits down at her desk. “Gee. for an old man he can really move.” A voice comes from the door. “This old man has good reason to stay very active. Try getting my age and having 4 grandkids to keep up with.” Niraya chuckles. “Sounds like a wonderful family.” The old man nods. “Be sure your presentation is ready. At noon we begin the showdown.” 

Niraya quickly gets the presentation setup ready. She pulls out the device she has been working on. It was a headset modified for a more deep and rich VR experience without being heavy or costly. This prototype was all she got finished before the deadline appeared. She puts it on and runs through the various checks even playing the demo game she made. it wasn't much more to test the VR functions than to be an actual game.

The phone rings and she answers it without taking off the headset. “Niraya its me Jack you do know were starting soon right?” Niraya begins to panic. “OH NO!” She shuts down the game and carefully moves all the stuff needed to the presentation room. She walks in and sits down at the table. “Sorry, I’m late. Last minute checks and all that.”

As she looked around the room she spots Jack. The lazy blond haired jerk who has stolen so many of her ideas back in Tech School. Next to him was a bald man with tribal tattoos across his head. That was Ralph, Jack’s best friend they seemed to have worked together on a project. On the other side of the table sitting next to Niraya was a brunette haired woman Rachel. She was looking extremely nervous. So Niraya gives her a hug.

Rachel pushes Niraya away and speaks in a low and quiet voice. “I’m sorry to cause you to worry.” Niraya smiles at her. “No need to worry. We all came up with something that even if its rejected it can be something we come back to later after a bit of polish.” Rachel nods and pulls out a tackle box and opens it. Inside of it was some art supplies. She pulls out her small art book and gets it ready putting away the tackle box. “So...ugh...where Tanya?”

Jack was the first to speak up. “She fell ill. A long night at the onsen drifting away in the hot water kinda got to her.” Rachel looked worried. “I hope she’s ok.” Jack shrugs. “Her damn fault.” Niraya sighs. “Well, wait are we waiting for?” The door suddenly opens as soon as she says that. Jack spots the people who were walking in causing him to sit up straight. 

Niraya looks at them confused as the old man speaks up. “Ah, our financial backers have shown up...as you are no doubt aware making digital entertainment products aren’t cheap. It's a costly endeavor. And they wanted to pick the next big project. Since only three projects are here we will judge from these.”

Jack stands up with Ralph. “We have worked together to come up with the next sequel to one of our most popular games.” Ralph speaks up right after jack stopped. “Heaven’s Quarrel II: Pantheon Wars.” the investors were stone cold silent. Ralph quickly showed off what they had been working on. Next was Rachel who was creating an RPG game. She only had artwork to show off the game as she wasn’t sure where to take the RPG just yet. It was a rather beautiful thing. The investors showed some intrested in what they saw. Then it was Niraya’s turn.

Niraya takes a deep breath and calms herself she stands up and holds out her VR Headset prototype. “This is the next stage in VR technology. Cordless design with extremely long battery life weighing no more than then a pound. I present to you the ugh...well I haven’t come up with a name for it... I spend many dedicated hours to make it. BUT that shouldn’t discourage you! A name is but a simple matter for something that just been revealed to someone other than myself!” Niraya was very nervous at this point.

She hands the prototype to the investors. “Please put this on.” They each take the device and put it on examining the prototype functions. One person even tested the wall sensor function. “Very good Niraya this might actually be worth the investment.” Niraya smiles hearing that as she takes her prototype back. “But what good is a device if there is nothing to use it for.” 

The investors look at each other quietly debating between each other. Once finished their attention was back to the room. “You two will receive minimal funding for the making of this squeal. Should interest in this title be above exceptions we can throw some more money your way. We feel that Niraya’s project could be utilized with Rachel’s RPG idea. She has presented us with some breathtaking imagery. Should we get players a more first-hand view into this world I feel we could corner a market that no one has touched.”

The old man chuckles. “If that is how you wish to spend your investment then I will put the teams to work. The investors take their leave once they were gone the old man speaks up. “As you know I will be stepping down soon. And I will entrust this company to one of you five. But since one of you isn’t here I will discuss this with her later.” He coughs to clear his throat. “Richel you are promoted to CEO. I will be retiring by years end. So I hope it's enough time to get you accustomed to the roll.”

Niraya looks at her boss her spirit shattered. Richel got the promotion. The always quiet Richel. Niraya gets up. “Please excuse me. I have business to attend to.” The old man nods and Niraya leaves. She runs to her office and breaks down right there under the desk. Niraya doesn’t show her face for several hours. By the time she did, it was time to head home.

Niraya takes her leave it was obvious she was torn up about the promotion thing. Rachel lets her be for now. Niraya drives home stopping at a local bar she knew off to drown her sorrows. Rachel was there as well. “Why are you here. Going to ruin me drinking myself into a coma.” Rachel hugs Niraya. “I didn't want that position. You left the room before I could refuse.” By this point, Niraya was already pretty drunk. “You refused? That was a foolish mistake. You earned what I wanted to achieve. But...here I am just...melting away in self-pity.” Rachel picks Niraya up. “Come on you have had enough.”

She pulls Niraya out of the bar. Niraya breaks free of her grasp as they walk out and she stumbles into the road. She hears a horn a screech of tires the sensation of flying. Then nothing. She opens her eyes to see Rachel over top of her crying. Niraya tried moving but nothing was working. Her vision fades into an inky blackness.

She suddenly opens her eyes to find herself in a black void. It felt like she was floating in water. But everywhere she looked she could not confirm what she was feeling. “H...hello?” her voice echoes into the dark abyss. She tries to get up but couldn’t find anything to push off of. “Please...someone is anyone there!?” Niraya was starting to panic a bit. Then a light shows up above her. “Niraya. You have met with misfortune. But worry not. Where you failed to achieve greatness in one world. You have been granted a second chance in another. I bestow upon you this gift. Please go forth and save the world.” 

the glowing ball of light touches Niraya’s body and she begins to glow. As she glows sensation returns to her body she could move she quickly sits up. The world around her was still black. “Voice? Hello?” Suddenly Niraya sinks deep into what felt like an ocean. She struggles to get back up to the surface but could only feel herself going deeper into it. She struggles as hard as she could but without air, she blacks out.


	2. Welcome Sister.

She wakes up feeling wind flowing past her. She opens her eyes she could see a bright blue sky above her but looking around she finds that she is falling. “OH CRAP OH JESUS! HELP!!!!!!” Niraya ends up landing in the middle of a forest. The landing was extremely rough but she survived it. “Ow owie owie ow ow...wh...what the? I survived that?” 

She looks up to the sky unsure how far she fell then she looks around. She made a pretty decent sized hole. “W...where am I?” She gets up and checks herself. It's at this point she notices something has changed about her. Other than her clothes being changed to a kimono she had a tail and ears on top of her head. She was even more confused about how she was a humanoid creature now. Suddenly a voice speaks to her in her head. “Skills acquired...Nimble, Fireball, Summon weapon: Claws, Acute hearing, enhanced smell, Nature lover.” 

As this new voice read off these strange skills she was apparently obtaining she could feel a part of her changing. Nimble she felt like her legs tingle a bit. Fireball she could feel a well of energy building up inside of her. Summon weapon caused her to have a vision of some sort of claw-like weapon but it was gone in a flash. Acute hearing upon hearing that the silent forest came to life. She could not only hear every noise in the area around her but can tell how far away they were and in what direction. Enhanced smell allowed her to pick up a faint scent of bacon cooking nearby. Nature lover caused her to feel extremely at ease being around the trees.

She shakes her head to get the thought of eating that delicious smelling bacon out of her head. “No Niraya you need to focus...what do you remember.” She thinks back about her death. Her stupid decision to drink so much because she was jealous. Drowning her sorrows away caused her to get run over by some sort of vehicle...and leaving Rachael there to witness it all. As Niraya dwelled on those sad thoughts her tail wraps around her and her ears lay flat on her head.

She collapses to her knees and starts crying. “I’m sorry Rachael. I didn’t mean to do that to you. Please, Voice. Take me back. I want to fix my mistakes!” She had shouted that at the top of her lungs but only get the normal forest noises in return. Niraya dries her tears. “No...You can’t go back….This is your life now. You can’t go back no matter how hard you try.” Steeling herself she stands back up and tries to calm down. After taking a deep breath she climbs out of the crater with ease.

At the top, she hears what sound like a weapon being drawn. She turns towards the sound and spots a small group of human all with their weapons at the ready. “So this is the creature that did a number on the forest. Bet she will make us rich if we capture her and trade her to Warmonger!” Niraya quickly backs away from these humans and summons her claws. Sure enough, they matched the flash she saw in her head. Blades that look like they are made of pure energy attached to an obsidian black handguard and grip section.

The humans chuckle. “She thinks she can put up a fight against us? The front one does some hand motions and the others seemed to follow an unspoken command. They were swift surrounding Niraya. She looks around at the 12 humans wanting to capture her. She stands at the ready for any of them to make a move.

Suddenly she is attacked from all sides at once. Niraya jumps up onto the tree above her and uses the branches to get away from these punks. She gains some distance from them but that is when she noticed some humanoid figure flying above. “Great they called in some backup. And they can fly...TOTALLY not fair man!” She uses the canopy to keep herself hidden from the flying one. Suddenly the forest ended leaving nothing but open plains ahead of her. “Oh crap...what now….think Niraya...uh...ugh…”

Suddenly the flying figure appears before Niraya her crimson hair matches her glowing red eyes her armor was a skintight suit with various armor platings on them her wings seemed to be made of pure energy and glowed in a similar way to her suit. The glow reveals a hexagon pattern in her armor. Niraya panics and leaps at the figure throwing her hands around at random. The woman catches Niraya’s hands and holds them up. “That's no way to treat your sister!”

Niraya stops and looks at the woman in front of her. “Wait. sister? What's going on here!?” She lets Niraya down gently but Niraya hears something and hides behind her sister. “What is it.” Suddenly the group of people emerge from the forest and freeze in place. “OH CRAP ITS A CPU!” The woman looks at Niraya confused. “What did you do?” 

Niraya shakes her head. “They wanted to capture me and take me to someone called warmonger.” The woman turns her attention back to the men. “I can’t allow this transgression to go unanswered!” she holds out her hand and a lance suddenly appears in it. It was a similar design to the armor except the bladed end was pure energy.

Niraya backs away and watches as with one swift strike of her lance caused the first few trees in front of her to be obliterated as well as the humans that threatened to capture Niraya. Niraya begins to panic and runs away. “What the hell! She just killed those people! I’m probably next that is why she called me sister!” Niraya was running as fast as she could but the woman was faster appearing in front of Niraya at every turn.

Niraya stops. “WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME!!!” The woman stops realizing her mistake. “I am deeply sorry.” She bows to Niraya. “My name is Sunny. I am the CPU of Takach-Taki and you are my Sister the CPU candidate of Takach-Taki! We CPUs are practically gods in this world. We look over the people and in turn, they give us some of their share energy which helps give us power.” Niraya collapses her panic subsiding. “Sister are you ok!” Niraya groans. “I probably should have stayed dead in my world.” The woman sits down next to her. “Met with a terrible fate as well?” Niraya sits up surprised to hear that. “What did you say?”

Sunny chuckles. “When I was first brought here I was just like you. Very scared of this new world I was brought too. But I still remember my last moments of life before coming here. My husband who was a cop was being harassed about being a dirty cop. One day...he snapped. Shot our daughter right in front of me and shot me as well. The shot that killed me went through his skull as well. We both died that night. And I was left alone here. My sister at the time was dying due to a lack of shares.”

Niraya was confused. “Lack of shares can kill you?” Sunny shakes her head. “No no no. not directly anyway. She and the other three CPUs were in a huge fight to claim all the shares. Peace was obtained but it wasn’t to last. Due to weakening share energy, my sister grew with rage and in a desperate attempt to stop the fighting we the CPU Candidate at that time formed a union and slain our sisters. We vowed that shares are something too precious to fight over and thus a new era of true peace had begun.”

Niraya was more confused. “Then why am I here? I don't want to fight you. I don't want to kill the one person who at least talked to me like a normal person.” Sunny pets her head. Niraya was unaware of how good that felt till just then. But shocked by that she pushes Sunny’s hand away. “Sorry….it felt...weird.” Sunny chuckles. “Your tail made it seem like you enjoyed that.” Niraya blushes heavily.

Niraya looks at Sunny. “I died because of my own stupidity...drowned my sorrows in alcohol and when my friend tried to take me home... I stumbled into the street and died right in front of her.” Her tail wraps around her and her ears lay flat. Sunny notices this and pets her head some more. “We all make mistakes. And you were given a second chance at life...now come on. We have someone to meet.” Sunny stands up and puts her hand to her ear. “Priority transport needed my location.”

Niraya stands up confused but a minute later she could see a flying object coming from somewhere past the forest over to them. Sunny waves her lance and the flying object circles around them as it slows down and starts to land. Niraya could see that it was a flying cargo ship. Its engines didn’t seem to emit any heat but she could feel the wind blowing through whatever those engines were. It had armored hull plating so maybe it was military. Sure enough upon landing six soldiers get out and take up position near the ramp.

Sunny gives Niraya a little push as they head towards the airship. arriving at the ramp Niraya can see the soldiers were wearing what could only be described a futuristic armor. the gun as well looked like it matched the armor. At the top of the ramp was an older gentleman with ghost white hair and a scar across his face. one eye was milky white while the other was sapphire blue. When sunny walked onboard the older gentleman that was standing there salutes them. “We have arrived as requested. What is the priority package, ma'am.” Sunny points to Niraya. “This is Niraya CPU candidate of Takach-Taki.” The older gentlemen suddenly bowed. “Please accept my apologies. Had I know it was the CPU candidate I would have brought your personal transport.” Sunny waves her hand. “Forget about it. I should have been more specific so the fault is mine.”

Niraya had wandered around looking around at the airship interior. It was very militaristic but it had a strong sci-fi vibe. Sunny walks over to her as the older man called back the soldiers and they head off. The ship’s movement was hardly felt on the interior. Sunny pat's Niraya’s back. “I told them to take a short trip at high altitude around the place so you can see the world a bit more before we meet Histoire.” Niraya nods and walks over to the side of the ship where there was a small window curious to see what sunny wanted to show her.

The ship flew pretty high up but she could see a tower in the distance. The tower seemed to go from the ground all the way up to beyond the sky. “What the?” Sunny chuckles. “The tower of Gameindustry. The place where Histoire lives and watches over this world. She never told me why the tower was so big but I’m glad it is there. You can never get lost with something like that towering over the horizon. As they got closer she could see 4 large cities it was hard to make out what they looked like from this distance but they would probably be considered a state of there own with how big they were.

Sunny peeks through the window. “That one on the far side is Takach-Taki, the one to the left of it is Mura, the closest one is Veillon, and the last one is Faulknen. Not much to see from up here. But you get a decent lay of the land from here.” Niraya looks around the various cities. There was all sorts of different terrain mountains, plains, forests, lakes aplenty, and even stuff in between.

The ship suddenly drops in altitude as they began there approach to the tower. Sunny was walking around like it was nothing as well as the soldiers but Niraya couldn’t stand very well feeling so light at that moment she almost lost footing.

The drop slows gradually but Niraya’s nervousness only grew. She was meeting someone who lives in a tower that stretches to the heavens. Is she more like a god than this CPU the bandits had mentioned? These questions were starting to pile up as she watches from the window.

The tower was close enough now that some details could be picked out. It seemed like it was a cable of some kind. Mechanical parts moving every now and then and pulses of energy going from above to the ground and back up again. Scary was the first word that came to her mind. This structure had a steampunk-like design but with futuristic sci-fi concepts mixed in. it was hard to tell where the line between them was as it seemed to be integrated with each other perfectly.

The ship lands on one of the many platforms that were around the structure. Sunny grabs Niraya’s hand and looks at her with a smile. “Be strong sister. Histoire maybe very powerful but she is the one who ensures the CPUs do their job. She will never bring harm to anyone without good reason.” Niraya nods and sunny lets go of her hand and motions or her to follow. 

The bay doors were opened and the soldiers stand there saluting. Sunny stopped at the old man. “When we leave the ship you're free to leave. Just inform the pilot of my personal craft that I would like him here when we finish.” The old man nods. “I will inform them right away. May you and your sister have a pleasant meeting with the supreme one.”

Sunny nods and leads Niraya off the landing pad and into the main structure. Once they were far enough away the ship takes off heading somewhere. Niraya’s nervousness was hard to hide as her ears and tail reflected it. As they walked sunny gently pets her head to try and get her to calm down. It was helping if only a bit.

The door open and they head inside the steampunk futuristic combination continues with the interior as well. The walls seem to pulse the same way at the exterior did the floor was a beautiful white marble with some basalt inlays to make unique patterns. There were several people moving around doing various things. It was almost like she stepped in from a fantasy world into a sci-fi movie. The people seemed to wear roughly similar outfits. They looked like one piece suits but each of them was customized a little bit. There was some similarity between some of them so maybe they do a specific job in the tower. She shakes her head she needed to focus. 

Sunny leads her around for a bit before arriving at a very large set of doors. There was a couple of heavily armored guards in front of it. “Halt what is your business with the supreme one CPU Sunny. And CPU Candidate Niraya.” Niraya was shocked by this and hides behind Sunny. Sunny laughs. “Since you know her name you already know why I’m here. Why do you test me so!”

The soldier sighs. “Yea guess I gave that one away. To be honest, Histoire is not in a good mood right now. Someone had broken into the data vaults and had obtained some information and she is wanting to figure out who it was as they left a real mess of the data they took.” Sunny sighs. “Great...first some thugs wanting to capture my sister for some guy named Warmonger now this. I hope they aren’t related.” She seemed rather annoyed at this tidbit of information.

Sunny pushes the soldier aside gently and touches doors. “Better get this over with right now.” The doors didn’t seem to open it was more like she was warped away just by touching it. Niraya hesitates. “It's ok its a security measure. Only those who are allowed in can be warped. We are only here to be Histories eyes and ears on anyone trying to sneak in.” Niraya nods and touches the doors. 

In a flash, she went from a brightly lit area to a room that was blacker than the darkest nights with what looked like computer code flying around everywhere. In the center was a glowing object. Sunny was standing next to her and nods at her. “Go on. She is waiting for you.” Niraya hesitates but a gentle push from her sister makes her walk forward. She walks towards the glowing thing only to hear what sounded like angry growls and some rather unfriendly words.

Niraya walks around the glowing object in the middle of the room to see a woman on her knees pulling streams of code and reading them deleting segments that looked corrupted. “I swear if I find the person who did this death would be too good for them!” Niraya freezes in place and lets out a small yelp. This catches the woman attention. She turns to Niraya and the woman's attitude seemed to take a complete 180. ”NIRAYA! So glad you could make it. Please have a seat.” with a wave of her hand some chairs showed up with a table that had what looked like a tea set on it.

The woman stands up and fixes her outfit. She looked more like a dark mage than a supreme being. “I’m sorry I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Histoire I am the overseer of this dimension of Gameindustry.” Niraya was confused but Histoire motions for her to sit at the chairs. Once Niraya sat down Historie did the same. “Now I know you have a lot of questions...but like you, no doubt can tell I’m currently in a bit of a bind and don’t have much time to answer questions at the moment.”

Niraya nods. “From what I could see you were trying to fix a corrupted data stream. I understand how frustrating that can be. I myself had to work around that when I was programming.” Histoire’s eyes light up. “Really! What was your most effective solution!” Niraya hesitates seeing her react like that. “Well ugh...the corruption stems from a source code. If you can isolate the corrupted sector you can search for its source instead of doing a code wipe and rewrite.” Histoire bangs her head against the table which somehow didn’t cause any of the fine china tea set pieces to move. “I’m so foolish! That was such a simple solution why didn't I think of that!!” 

She sits back up and sighs. “So much has happened in a short amount of time. The CPU candidates have started to appear. You are the fourth one to show up. Then the data stream gets infiltrated and corrupt. It's just been a very hectic past few weeks.” Niraya nods. “Yea...i know the feeling.” Niraya’s ears laid flat all that work she put into that project of hers only to throw it away over some stupid promotion. “I know you are sad about what happened in your world. I can tell you that your death was actually a blessing in disguise.”

Niraya looks at Histoire confused. “What do you mean?” Histoire summons a mirror and it shows her the world she came from. “Because of you dying in her arms Rachel promised to ensure that your hard work would be the building blocks of a new era in gaming. And sure enough, she will be the owner of Game Factory inc. and with strong determination steps out of her shell and becomes a strong boss. The game she envisioned combined with the tech you made creates a game so popular it was impossible to find anyone who wasn’t playing it.”

Niraya smiles seeing Rachel so happy. “Wish I could see her again and tell her how proud I am of her.” Histoire shakes her head. “Sadly you can’t but she know you are watching over her endeavors.” Niraya sighs. She feels a little better about dying now. But it still saddens her. Histoire snaps her fingers. “There is much to discuss so might as well get some tea.” Niraya reaches for the tea set but stops looking across the room she doesn’t spot Sunny. “Where did sunny go?” Histoire chuckles. “The life of a CPU can be a busy one. She will be back once we finish.”

Niraya grabs the teapot and opens it. It was empty. “Ugh...there is no tea?” Histoire chuckles. “This is the first thing you need to know. Nothing is ever as it seems.” She grabs the pot and gently tips it over causing some tea to pour out into the cup. Niraya puts the pot down and tries the tea. It was exactly how she liked it. “I..ugh...ok?” Histoire chuckles. “Sorry, that was just a show. The tea is real I just wanted to ensure you were willing to accept even the most impossible of answers.”

Niraya just drinks her tea quietly as Histoire starts to go over the history of gameindustry. The many many MANY wars over shares. The rise and fall of many great cities and nations. The destruction of the tower during the dark age. So much has happened in this world and Histoire was there for all of it. When they finished talking Sunny arrived again. “I leave for ten minutes and you are already having tea without me?”

Niraya was confused. “Ten minutes? But we have been talking for hours?” Histoire chuckles. “You seriously think I can handle real-time day to day information? Upon entering the room time slows down by a factor of Thirty. Basically every minute out there is thirty in here.” Sunny chuckles. “She can slow time down even more if she needs too. But she prefers the leisurely pace that this is.” Niraya nods. “I think...we are done here.” Histoire nods. “Yes, yes. I need to get back to fixing the data stream.”

Niraya bows to Histoire before walking over to sunny who leads her back outside. The guards look at them. “Enjoyed your stay with her?” Niraya nods. “Yes. she is quite a nice person...when she isn’t threatening painful death and destruction.” The guard chuckles. “Yea she takes any damage to the data stream as personal as anyone would take a kick to the shins.” Sunny chuckles. “Well we best be off. The sun was starting to set when you landed. So it won't be much longer till nightfall.” 

Niraya nods and follows Sunny. They arrive at a landing pad where a sleeker black ship was sitting. It wasn’t as militaristic in appearance but it was very similar to how Sunny’s armor looked. As Sunny approached the door opens and a man walks out and bows to her. The man looked rather young. his black hair was very neat and tidy and his brown eyes reflect his respect for Sunny. “Your personal craft is waiting. Niraya stops at the entrance of the ship as she was still looking at it. Sunny chuckles from inside. “Come on in its much more impressive inside.” Niraya jumps a bit causing her ears to stand up and heads inside the ship. The man follows her and after securing the door heads to the cockpit. “Where are we off to ma'am.”

Sunny went to talk to the pilot as Niraya looked around. It was a gorgeous interior lot of space it was more like a small home than a flying ship if you were just looking at the interior. It had a tiny kitchen but big enough to make a meal if needed. It had a few chairs with a table next to it. In the back was a bathroom, and a bedroom. The door to the engine bay was well hidden but was slightly offset so you could open it. It was a bit loud for her but thankfully the door nearly deafens the noise they made. 

When she returns to the main room Sunny was sitting on the couch but not in her usual getup. She was no longer wearing armor she was in what looked like a rather large T-shirt with a band’s name on it and some blue jeans. “You changed quickly.” Sunny chuckles. “When you learn to summon your HDD form you will notice your clothes don't change.” Niraya nods and sits down next to her sister and leans on her. “I never had a sister before I think this will be quite fun.” Sunny chuckles again and hugs Niraya. “Then I promise to be the best damn old sister you will ever have!”

The trip was not very long. The ship flies around Takach-Taki allowing Niraya a good view of the city. it looked like a futuristic sci-fi city. Niraya was very impressed with what she was seeing. A few minutes pass and they arrive at the basilicom landing pad. “Were home.” Sunny gets up and Niraya follows. When they exit the ship Niraya realizes they are on the ground floor of a really tall building. She looks up to see it towering above her. The shape was smooth and the top flared out the building was a mix of silver and marble. With some basalt pieces mixed in which accented the design very well. Sunny snaps her fingers getting Niraya’s attention. “Come on. I’m sure you tired.” Niraya quickly runs over to Sunny who led her inside. Just like before the ship takes off and heads away.

Niraya stops when they entered the building. The ground floor was a large atrium about 3 stories tall. And every ornately decorated in various marble and basalt for the walls. There were some gold trimmed pillars in evenly spaced intervals. The center was clear all the way up the ceiling. With several large crystal formations that seem to just float there. Below those were some counters that had people lined up. Along the sides were a few areas dedicated to seating. Some even had privacy walls in place.

Sunny notices Niraya stopped. “Welcome to the basilicom main atrium. Its where people put in requests for certain jobs and for adventurers to earn some money. We CPUs also can take any job we want. But the adventures need to prove themselves before they can do that. Over there on the sides is where adventure guilds can group up and discuss the quest before heading off. Or to just have a private meeting.” Niraya nods to show she understood. 

Sunny leads Niraya to an elevator and they head up to the top floor. There was a ding when they arrived and the door opens up to a similar looking room. It was similar to the airship but much larger and had more furniture. Looking around she spots the kitchen off to its own side. Beyond that was a large outside space which overlooked the city. On the other side was a hallway that leads to the bedrooms and bathroom. The bathroom was rather large as it contained a floor spa bathtub. It looked similar to the onsen hot tubs back home. The first bedroom she explored was large and filled with various things. It was hard to tell a theme but it was clearly similar to someone who was into rock n’ roll. Niraya couldn’t help but chuckles seeing this room. Last was her room. Pretty barren. Just some empty shelves with a TV in it a bed and a large window with blackout tint on it. Niraya lays down on the bed figuring it was hers it was very comfortable. Sunny walks in and puts something on the bed. “Good night Niraya.”

Niraya looks at what Sunny brought in before the door shut which darkened the room. It was a little fox plush a similar reddish orange of her hair color. Niraya grabs it and hugs it. “Thank you Sunny.” After a bit, Niraya drifts off to sleep. In her dream, she ends up reliving her last day in her world. When she woke up tears were streaming down her face. She still holds on to so much regret about what happened that day.


	3. First day of training

After wiping away her tears she gets out of bed and makes sure to fix her bed putting the plush doll on the bed so it faces the door. After that, she leaves and heads to the bathroom. She walks in on Sunny soaking in the bath. “OH! I’m sorry I didn’t know you were in here.” Niraya turns to leave as Sunny speaks up. “No need to leave. Plenty of room in the bath for the both of us.” Niraya hesitates but she wasn’t wrong. 

She strips down but covers herself up before entering the bath. She sits pretty low in the water. Sunny chuckles. “Guess times have changed. Where I come from the women of my time would relax and enjoy the bath” Niraya sighs and sits up straight. “Yea I know. Its just...weird is all.” Sunny stands up. “Well I have been in the water long enough you can enjoy the bath by yourself.“ Niraya could see scars all over Sunny’s body. Probably from the war with her older sister.

Niraya sits in the water just thinking to herself. The voice spoke up again. “Was this world not to your liking?” Niraya sighs. “It...it’s not your fault. You gave me a second chance I have no right to object to what you did for me.” the voice speaks again but this time it came from the room. Niraya jumps and dips into the water covering herself. It was Histoire. “I’m sorry I didn’t mean to intrude.” Niraya sighs and relaxes a bit. “I just...i need time to adjust. Everything here is so much different than back in my old world.” Histoire nods. “I understand. I’m sorry that I can’t send you back to your world. But I will do what I can to make sure you adjust to this one. If you ever need something. I am always listening.” With that said she vanishes.

Niraya dips into the water and cleans herself off the hot water felt amazing and relaxing. Once she was finished she dries off but finds that her ears and tail were a little more difficult to dry off. Once she felt she was sufficiently dry she gets dressed and walks out of the bathroom. The tub drained itself when she left. When she walked into the living room she could smell something was cooking so she heads to the kitchen. 

Sure enough, Sunny was there making some bacon and eggs. “Enjoy your bath?" Niraya shakes her head. “It was a little weird having you in there, to begin with. I...i just need time to adjust is all.” Sunny nods. “How you like your eggs?” Niraya walks over to her. “Scrambled with some salt and pepper.” Sunny nods. “I like mine sunny side up! Badum ching!” Niraya chuckles at that joke. “Boo that was obvious.” Sunny chuckles. “Hey, you laughed that all I wanted.” She quickly finishes making breakfast and puts both meals on the table. She then starts making herself some coffee. “I don't have tea. But I do have water if you want that. Unless you want some coffee?” Niraya shakes her head and sits down at the table with a glass of water.

She quietly eats to herself surprised by how delicious the eggs were. The right amount of salt and pepper mixed with the fluffiness of the eggs. She was amazed at Sunny’s cooking skills. Sunny was eating quietly as well only speaking up when she remembered something. “I will be busy doing quests all day. Some pretty high ranking ones have begun to pile up and I need to thin it out a bit. So I won't be back till after midnight.” Niraya nods. “Ok. I understand.” 

Sunny nods. “That's fine. If you want something to do I have all the channels available on that TV. or if you feel like helping out I’m sure some low ranked adventurers wouldn’t mind your help.” Niraya sighs. “I’m still new to the whole combat thing. What you saw was literally everything I knew.” Sunny chuckles. “Then how about putting up a request for some training. I’m sure someone will help you out.” She puts a large bag of cash on the table. “Should be enough to get you at least a silver class adventurer.”

Niraya opens the bag it was filled with roughly 150 silver pieces. “Ugh...silver class adventurer?” Sunny facepalms. “I forgot to mention the ranks didn’t I?” She sighs and thinks of how to best explain it. “There are 6 tiers for the adventurer ranking. Each represents how much strength and experience they have. Those at the bottom are called copper class. They are the newbies of the adventurers. Next above that is the iron adventurer. Above that is silver then there is gold and platinum. Then there is the cream of the crop best of the best. Adamantite class. If you have an adamantine with you then you will never have to worry at them. There are only 4 teams of adamantine adventurers. Each team containing at least three members. In total there are 15 adamantite adventurers.”

Niraya nods. “Well...ok then. I will keep that in mind.” She finishes her breakfast and washes her plate. After that, she takes the bag of money and heads downstairs. Once down there she notices the place was a lot more lively than last night. She walks up to one of the desks and waits in line. She was getting some pretty strange looks considering almost everyone was human. A person skips the line and hands over some paperwork before heading away. When the person turned around she noticed an Iron crest on his armband.

After a few minutes, the line began moving much faster guess he ran out of the official documents. Once it was her turn she approaches the desk. “May I help you?” Niraya nods. “I ugh...would like to put in a request for training.” The man nods. “Alright what do you have to offer?” Niraya puts the bag of money down. “Give me a moment.” he puts his hand up to the bag and both it and his hand glowed. “153 silver pieces. Alright, let me just write that down. How skilled are you as you currently?" “Uh...less than a copper class.” The man nods and fills out the forum. “What is your name and is there a way of contacting you.” 

A person walks up behind Niraya and puts a phone down in front of Niraya. “Yes This is Niraya my sister. She had a phone now.” Niraya could hear people gasping. She turns around and the people quickly bow their heads. She looks up at Sunny. “Could they not do that it feels weird.” Sunny chuckles. “It's there first time seeing the CPU candidate. I feel the same way as you on that so just give them time.” Niraya turns back around and the man was already in the phone checking something. “Alright. And your name is Niraya correct?” Niraya nods. “Alrighty, contact information is finished. Payment is issued. Any rank, in particular, you are looking for?” Niraya shakes her head. “Alright document finished.” he holds it up and it disappears in a flash. “It's on the board. Just wait for someone to respond and contact you.” 

Niraya nods and walks away from the counter. “Niraya.” Niraya turns around and the man was holding out the phone. “Oh right.” She quickly grabs it. “Thank you.” She walks to where sunny was standing. “Sorry would have been here sooner but the store wasn’t open when I got there.” Niraya nods. “Thanks...for the fox plush and the phone.” Sunny chuckles. “My pleasure. Next is your wardrobe. But I think you can handle that. If you need money just give me a call and I can work something out with the owner.” Niraya nods. “But after that your on your own. You may be my younger sister. But you do need to fend for yourself. The fox was a welcome home gift. The phone is just so you can contact me. And the clothes are so you don't go around naked.” Niraya blushes at that comment.

Sunny chuckles. “Well, I’m off. Hope you find someone you can teach you.” With that sunny changes into her HDD form and heads over to the message board. Niraya sits and waits for a bit. Soon enough her phone starts to vibrate. She looks at it and it was a call. She answers it. “Hello?” A voice on the other end was that of a young male. “Yes hello. You were asking for some training. My team and I will gladly teach you. We are currently at the entrance. You can’t miss us our tank is a bit of a giant.”

The call hangs up and Niraya heads to the main entrance. She assumed it was the main entrance as it didn’t look like a landing bay. Sure enough, there was a large man in full plate armor that towered above everyone. She walks over and looks at the tall man clad in shiny plate armor. “Are you...the giant that I'm supposed to see?” a voice comes to be beside the giant and she looks them. it was a thin looking man with a scruffy haircut. his hair was blue as well as his eyes. “Yea but he isn’t much for speech. Not after that encounter with the dragon.” the giant of a man lifts his hand and begins moving his fingers around in a strange way. "yes I know she looks like a monster but humanoid types have been popping up more often. No need to be rude.”

Niraya looks between the two. “So it's just you two?” The man shakes his head. “Me and Brutus are here getting a job lined up while the other two are off getting restocked on their gear.” Niraya nods. So what is your name?” the man laughs. “Funny enough it's Noname. Before you ask. My parents were really bad at names. Our dog was named Five.” She looks up at Brutus. “So Brutus you're a tank? What's that?” Brutus nudges Noname. “Alright alright. I got this. Tanks are the guys who go in and ensure they are the ones soaking up damage.”

Niraya was confused. “Why do you want to get hurt like that? do you get off on pain?” Brutus facepalms. “You definitely are less than a copper rank. Tanks are there to take the damage to allow the other people in the party to focus down priority targets. As well as allows the mages time to cast their spells.” each class has there own unique set of skills and equipment they can use. Healers, for example, are a mage class good at well healing people and providing defensive buffs. While Paladins like Brutus here are able to run into a fight get everyone’s attention and hold the line.”

Niraya nods. “I have so much to learn. But how will I know what class I am?” Brutus again makes the strange hand gestures. “You right. Perhaps Jazz would be able to find out.” as if on queue “someone called?” Niraya turns to see a female clad in similar clothing to Histoire except it was white. her hair was hidden in the hat so it hard to see what color it was. but this girl had blue and red eyes. “Sorry but Troy will be a few more minutes. He had to stop by a few more shops for some extra supplies.” Niraya looks at new arrival and bows to them. “My name is Niraya i was told you would help me train.” Jazz bows back. “The name is Jasmine but they just call me Jazz for short.”

Jazz looks at Niraya. “Interesting. So what is your weapon of choice?” Niraya summons her claws and Jazz looked a little surprised. “Summon weapon...interesting.” She pulls out an item it was a pair of glasses and puts them on. Suddenly she throws up. And rips the glasses off of her head. “Jazz! WHAT DID YOU DO!” Brutus grabs Noname’s arm. “She didn’t do anything. Her magical aura is that of a CPU...i…was just overwhelmed.” Niraya bows to her. “I’m am so sorry. I’m still new to this world showing up just yesterday. I am CPU candidate of Takach-Taki.

Jazz steadies herself and casts a bit of magic to clean up the mess she made. “I am terribly sorry about that. So...we are training a god. I don't like our odds.” Brutus bangs on his chest plates. Then signs something. “You sure? Well if you say so...Brutus would like to be your opponent and we are to stand aside and watch over the fight. I am allowed to cast healing spells only if needed.” Niraya looks at Brutus. “I accept. At least I know you are accustomed to taking hits.” Brutus nods. Troy finally shows up. A rough around the edges sort of man but his neatly kept hair and soft golden eyes speak of a man who is one with nature.

They travel across town on the express train. it was a very smooth ride and Niraya just watches the city go by. the train makes several stops but their stop in the middle of a plains area. A small outpost was setup so the people could get resupplied in the field if they needed it. Which is where the train dropped them off at. They lead Niraya a way into the field before stopping. “This is far enough. Now Niraya you fight like you mean it and Brutus will try and attack you. He promised to take it easy on you unless you prove to be a challenge.” Jazz was wanting to make sure Niraya knew what he was up to.

Niraya nods and takes her position Brutus stands there with his sword on his back. Noname speaks up. “Fighters ready begin.” Niraya summons her weapons and charges at Brutus attempting to attack him but her attacks were just bouncing off. He grabs her arm and throw her back and bangs on his chest plate. “Your form is all wrong. Bladed weapons like that are only sharp on one side of them. Sweeping attacks would be more effective. But that doesn’t mean you can swing wildly.” Niraya looks at Noname who was coaching from the side. He was there team’s rouge.

Niraya takes a deep breath and focuses she plans her attack and tries again. She was still bouncing off his armor but her technique was slowly getting better. Niraya notices every time Brutus throws her back he bang on his chest. She looks at Troy who was thinking. “Your opponent is a tank since you're only in 1v1 combat you don't have many options to taking him down as he could outlast you. Do you have any skills?”

Niraya thinks for a bit to what the voice said when she arrived. “Fireball.” suddenly her fur stands on end as she could feel the energy flowing through her. She puts her hands together and when she pulled them apart there was a fireball in her hands. “Impressive, magic is one way to do some damage. But Brutus is a paladin they have a skill for that.” Niraya launches the fireball and it hits some sort of barrier. He rubs his chest where the fireball hit and gave a thumbs up. “He says good job. But I think we should work on your spell casting a bit later.” Niraya nods. “Well, that's all I got for skills at the moment.”

Jazz speaks up. “Keep working on your form. It doesn’t matter if you can't hurt Brutus you need practice with hitting the target. Your form has improved since we started.” Brutus give another thumbs up. Niraya nods and goes back into the fight. She was growing more accustomed with her blades and with her nimble movement what little Brutus was doing to fight back was being met with either a counterattack or a swift dodge. 

Around Noon Niraya was getting exhausted and Jazz shot sparks between Brutus and Niraya causing her to back off. “Alright, that's enough physical training for now. I’d say she is skilled enough to work at copper tier. How about you all?” Everyone nods except Brutus as he gave two thumbs up. Noname speaks up. “Well I be damned Brutus is complimenting you. You must have impressed him.” Niraya walks over to them and sits down exhausted.

Jazz casts a spell and a tree grows between them providing shade. “Go ahead and relax we will get a campfire started and get some food for ya.” Niraya nods and leans against the tree and closes her eyes. After a bit, Niraya opens her eyes smelling something delicious. She sits up and looks around. Brutus was sitting next to her as if guarding her. “What are ya cooking?” Troy speaks up. “Potato Stew. It's not much but it should give you some energy back after that bit of training. Also, your sister showed up. She was just checking in on ya since she was in the area.” 

Niraya was confused. “Why was she here?” Noname speaks up. “Probably hunting down the pack of wild wolves roaming the plains. Saw a request for it. Surprised that it was a silver ranked quest which is odd. For a pack of low ranking wolves.” Jazz speaks up. “It's probably some pack of wolves that have been tamed by goblins or ogres. Maybe even bandits.” Niraya stands up and stretches. That nap was something she needed and being under a tree helped as well. “Perhaps I should get a couple bonsai plants for my room.” Jazz speaks up. “Not getting restful sleep?” Niraya shakes her head. “It's only been one night. But napping under the tree was very soothing.” Jazz chuckles. “Well, I’m a nature lover as well. So I know how you feel.”

Niraya nods and sits next to Jazz. “so fireball training is next?” She nods. “Yes..though you have an odd way of casting it. You don't have to hold it in your hands to use it.” Niraya rubs the back of her head. “Sorry, it was the first thing that came to mind.” Jazz nods. “Yea that's kinda how it works. You envision it appearing in the world and flying towards your target. With a bit of work you can actually get it to move around in flight making it hard for the opponent to see where it's going to hit.”

Niraya nods as Troy starts handing out bowls of soup. Once everyone had some he gives the rest to Brutus. After taking off his helmet he just starts chugging it down. Brutus's face was marked with several scars. “I guess he really is a giant.” Jazz chuckles. “Half-giant. But yea he eats quite a bit but we don't mind. It at least prevents us from having leftovers.” Niraya chuckles. “Yea I guess so.” Niraya eats the soup. It was a little bland but it was filling. Before everyone finished Niraya spots a gray blob moving in the distance. “Hey is that?” Jazz looks over. “Uh oh.” Brutus puts down the pot of soup and gets his sword at the ready. “I think that's the wolves.” Noname was a little nervous.

Niraya stands up and listens. Sure enough, there was some growling coming from the direction of the blob. “Well might as well get started with target practice then!” Niraya calms herself and focuses on the sound where it was coming from how far away it was. Then tracks that before shooting a fireball that direction. She could hear the ball of fire flying over her head and out into the distance. There was a sudden yelping noise she hit the target. “Nice hit. They are turning away.” Niraya ensures they don't turn back by lobbing a few more but not aiming for the wolves. “Those shots missed.” Niraya opens her eyes. “Wasn’t aiming for them that time. Was just making a wall of fire to have them turn around.”

Jazz nods. “Well it worked they are heading the other way. Suddenly a bright light fills the sky and what looked like beams of light raining down on the wolves. “I think your sister found them.” Niraya had to cover her ears from the sounds the wolves were making. “They are crying out in pain as they die.” Suddenly Noname gets attacked by a wolf. It was larger than the average wolf Brutus quickly kicks the beast. “It's not a wolf is a dire wolf! Jazz keep on guard. It might go for you.” Jazz nods and quickly casts healing aura on Noname. Niraya summons her weapon and charges at the beast.

The dire wolf was swift dodging Niraya's attacks while at the same time Niraya was dodging it. “Niraya has it distracted. Noname ready a holy arrow you get an opening take the shot.” Noname nods and pulls out his bow and readies it. Niraya and the dire wolf was moving so much it was hard to tell but Niraya heard them. She faints an attack and dodges in the other direction leaving the dire wolf exposed. In a flash of light, the holy arrow strikes home and the dire wolf collapses to the ground whimpering. 

Niraya bends down and pets the dire wolf. Suddenly the voice returns. “Hidden skill unlocked mental communication.” Niraya was confused but she could hear another voice. “Please. Spare me. The trolls have our leader hostage we never meant to harm anyone.” “Niraya get away from it!" Niraya leaps between them and the dire wolf. “It says their leader has been captured by some trolls.”

Jazz sighs. “Fine, we will spare this one. Make sure it knows that if it attacks anyone we will slay it.” Niraya looks at the dire wolf and it nods. “Yes, I understand. Please save our pack leader. A few hundred of us are nothing compared to losing him.” Niraya nods in return. “I think we need to investigate this.” Jazz casts minor heal on the dire wolf and it gets up and scurries away. Niraya pulls out her phone and calls her sister. “What is it, sis? I’m a little busy here.” “Stop attacking the dire wolves. They say their master is captured by some trolls.” “you do know what you're saying right. Dire wolves are a united pack. What one thinks they all think. You can't seriously believe that they would let their master be captured.” “the quest is silver rank right? What if someone else who can speak with these creatures found out about their leader getting captured.”

There was silence for a bit Niraya didn’t realize the call had already ended. Suddenly her sister showed up next to her. “You had better be right about this. Should they harm a human it would look back on us.” Niraya was a little intimidated by her tone of voice. Brutus puts his blade between Niraya and Sunny. Niraya looks at him and he was shaking his head. Noname speaks up. “He is saying not to fight with each other your both CPUs of this world. The last thing we need is another war.” Sunny looked hurt pretty badly by this comment. “I know you mean well sis. But if there is a chance they are not doing this by there own free will. We need to look into it.”

Jazz speaks up. “I don't want to interrupt but the dire wolf we freed is still watching us.” Niraya looks over and sees it. “Maybe it wants us to follow it?” Troy nods. “Worth a shot.” Troy quickly packs everything away. Brutus was carrying the pan eating what was left as they went. The dire wolf kept its distance from them but stopped running away when it arrived at a cave. It waited at the entrance. Brutus puts down the pan and puts on his helmet Troy picks up the pan. “I think Niraya and Sunny should go in. we can keep any reinforcements from coming in.” Brutus bangs on his chest to show his readiness.

Sunny looks at Niraya. “This won't be easy. I don't want you to get hurt. If you feel like you can’t handle it I want you to return to the gold ranked adventures at the entrance.” Niraya nods and readies her weapon. They head inside. It was pretty well lit by what looked like glowing crystals on the wall. They come across a small opening which leads into a larger portion of the cave system. Sure enough, it was a troll camp inside. Which must have a larger entrance somewhere else. Looking around Niraya sees the leader of the trolls sitting next to a large cage with a blue dire wolf in it. “That must be their leader.”

Sunny nods. “Stay here trolls are very tough to take down. But they are not smart. Once I pull them away from the cage you go for it. Once the dire wolves are free we will see what happens.” Niraya nods and lets Sunny go in first. Sunny jumps down from the ledge the second entrance was on. Sure enough, the trolls see her. “Crush puny creature who dare enter our home!” Sunny was just toying with them having them hit each other more to antagonize the leader. After a bit, the leader had enough and gets up. “You fools she is playing games I will show her what game we play!” The largest of the trolls charges after Sunny and Niraya takes that opportunity to get down to the cage. She opens it and the dire wolf looks at her and bows its head before leaving out the second entrance.

Niraya goes after her sister once she had sight on her she waves to her to signal it was done. “Thousand lance!” a bright light comes from Sunny then suddenly all the trolls were impaled by hundreds of lances. As they fell over they turned to dust leaving behind some gold and other trinkets that might be worth something. “Trolls are easy. Dire wolves are much harder since they don't need to breed to get a larger pack.” Niraya nods and follows Sarah out the main entrance where the blue dire wolf was waiting. The other adventures right behind. The dire wolf bows to Niraya and Sunny. “I thank you for freeing me from that prison. They demanded I hunt down anyone with any shiny objects to bring back to there lair.”

Niraya bows in return. “You are welcome. But your freedom comes at a price. You are to not hurt any humans or human settlements ever!” The dire wolf looks at Niraya. “A small price to pay for freedom. I accept your terms. No human or human settlement shall be harmed by my pack.” It darts off towards the forest. “So what did it say?” Niraya looks at Sunny. “He agreed.” the others walked in. “we can continue training if you want.” Niraya nods. “I would like that.” She notices Noname wasn’t there. “Hey, where did Noname go?” This caused Sunny to laugh. “Everyone has a name Niraya.” Troy speaks up. “His is actually Noname.” Sunny covers her mouth and calms herself. “I’m sorry I did not realize.”

Noname walks up from behind with a floating chest filled with various goods. “Don't worry I get it too often to be worried about it. Besides we got paid well today.” Brutus laughs at that. Jazz looks at Niraya. “I know you offered up some silver for our help. How about we pay you that back. This treasure will be reward enough. “Niraya shakes her head. “You got paid for it fair and square...besides it wasn’t even from our job.” Sunny chuckles. “You can have the loot and split it however you like. I need to go report that it has been resolved.” Sunny waves bye before taking off into the air.

Noname chuckles. “Sweet we even have the CPUs permission to this loot. Well, no sense wasting it. You all can help Niraya with the training, right? I will be in town getting these stuff appraised.” No one seemed to object. Once Noname was on his way they stay by the cave to have Niraya test her control. Brutus and Troy stand in the troll camp through the windy cave. She could see them from the entrance but it would be hard to aim a clean shot. Jazz was next to Niraya. “Keep calm and focus. You were able to pick up on far to fire the shot to get it to land where you wanted it too. But it's a lot different when you have to do it in combat. But before we try in combat how about you just try and practice going around a simple cave wall.”

Niraya nods and focuses on her target. Brutus in his bright reflective armor was pretty noticeable from the entrance thanks to the glowing crystals. She tries to send a fireball towards them only for it to explode on the wall. “You need to remember that most projectile spells are contained in a strong energy field which breaks the moment it touches something unleashing its full power right then. Niraya nods and tries a few time. She slowly begins to start getting the hang of hooking it to one side. But she was having a hard time sending back the other way. One shot even went and hit one the troll structure behind them. Troy was able to put the fire out though.

Niraya tried again but this time the fireball launched and she collapsed. “Drained your MP did ya? Don't worry casting magic is pretty rough for beginners.” Jazz shouts to the two down below. “She is out of Mana come on up.” Troy and Brutus walk back into the entrance and look at Niraya. “You were getting close I’m sure if you tried a few more time you might have actually hit Brutus.” Niraya chuckles. “You're just being too honest there.” Troy chuckles and hands Niraya a potion. “Here it will restore your mana. But not by much.” Niraya drinks it and feels a little better. “Thanks.” 

Jazz chuckles. “We can’t help you train all the time as we do need to do other things. But if you ever need help with a quest or something feel free to call upon us...if we're free of course.” Niraya nods. “Yea I will keep you guys in mind.” Niraya gets up she still felt drained but it wasn’t affecting her physically. “I think I had enough for one day.” Jazz chuckles. “But you were doing so well” Troy pats Niraya on the back. “I agree with her. She has done a lot for not even being a copper class in skill. She barely even knew how to wield her weapon when we started. I’d say she can at least hold her own on copper missions now. Brutus bangs on his chest to then gives a thumbs up. “Well, the big man agrees. When you get to gold rank we might even celebrate.” They head back to the town and meet up with Noname before heading to the basilicom to complete the mission.

When they arrived there it was late afternoon. The group got paid and Noname handed Niraya the bag of silver. “You did extremely well today. You deserve some of the rewards.” Niraya nods it was at least fair. Even if she got the least amount from it. Little did she know he snuck in some gold pieces. The others left to look for another job if there was one they could do quickly or was worth an overnight hunt while Niraya talks to the person at the desk. “Can i...have a copper badge?” 

The man looks at her confused. “But you're a CPU you don't need a badge.” Niraya shakes her head. “I am aware. But I don't want people to think so highly of me and be disappointed.” the man nods. “I understand. Give a moment to fill out the paperwork then I will notify you on your phone.” Niraya nods. “How long will it take?” The man thinks for a bit. “Should be done in an hour if nothing urgent shows up.” Niraya bows to the man. “Thank you.” the man bows back. “I do my best.”

Niraya heads into town. The bright lights of this futuristic city were quite impressive. She was just walking around for a bit till she notices a clothing store. One of the models was a humanoid creature a harpy from the wings. She walks into the store and is greeted by a lizard man he was rather small for his size but the clothes he was wearing seemed to fit him perfectly even when he turned around without moving his legs. “I will be with you in a moment.” He turns back around and pulls out a large box and sets it on the table. He then walks over to the register. “Welcome to Inhuman Tailors. The best place for the best fit.” 

Niraya looks at him confused. “Miss. you ok?” Niraya shakes her head. “Sorry, I just. Haven’t seen your kind before.” He bows to her. “Then it pleases me to be the first one you see. Most of my kind are brutes but not all of us are mindless beasts. Now, how may I assist you today?” Niraya motions to her somewhat dirty kimono. “This is kinda the only outfit that fits me.” the man nods. “I can get you sized up and we can discuss the details after that. Are you ok with me sizing you up? Or would you prefer Coco the Neko that helps me run this store? Coco is a female if that helps your decision.” Niraya blushes a bit. “Coco please.” He nods and claps his hands. “Coco I need your assistance. “Once minute boss.” about 20 seconds later she approaches from the back room.

Coco was indeed a Neko. she had a gorgeous brown and black hair tied in a ponytail. her tail wrapped around her waist like a belt. her yellow eyes seemed to glow a bit. once she was in full view of Jackson she bows. “I am sorry for my lateness Jackson. How may I be of assistance.” Jackson chuckles. “This young miss needs to be sized up for some clothes.” Coco nods and motions Niraya over to a curtain. Niraya enter the curtain as she hears someone else enter. Jackson was busy with them. Coco had Niraya stand on a small platform in between some mirrors. “Please remove your kimono so I can get a more accurate measurement.” Niraya removes her kimono leaving her in her underwear. “Now arms out to the side and legs apart. Please hold this pose till I am done.” 

Coco was gentle but swift quickly getting Niraya’s measurements. Once finished Niraya puts her kimono back on and follows her outside. “Alright, boss I got you those measurements.” Jackson nods as the customer he was working with grabs the box that he had pulled out and left. “So miss. What would you like us to do for you with your attire.” Niraya thinks for a bit. “Well, a couple of kimonos like this one...and some more normal clothes. I’m not quite sure what passes for normal.” Jackson nods. “I can show you some normal looking clothes.” he pulls out a binder and flips through it to the appropriate pages. 

Niraya looks through them and picks out a few outfits she liked. “Alright...let see...that will be 24 gold and 70 silver.” Niraya nods and pulls out her bag she was going to pay off the silver then call her sister but when she opened the bag of money she sees the gold coins. “Noname you sneaky bastard.” Jackson looks at Niraya. “Sorry?” Niraya shakes her head and begins counting out the money. She was a few gold pieces shy but after a call to her sister, it was squared away. “These will be ready in a few days time we will have them delivered to your home.” Niraya nods. If you could overnight at least one kimono I can wait for the rest.” Jackson nods. “That I can do for a CPU candidate.” Niraya bows to the man. “Thank you.” Jackson bows back as well as Coco. “we hope the outfits will be to your liking.”

Niraya takes her leave and heads back to the basilicom. Just as she walked in she gets a message. She pulls out her phone and it was about the copper ranking. She walks up to the worker and he smiles at her. “Congratulations you have joined as a copper ranked adventurer. This is your badge. Wear it however you please.” Niraya nods and takes the badge. It wasn’t anything fancy like the gold ones but it was something to work towards. “Thank you.” Niraya heads upstairs and turns on a movie as she cooks some supper.

Niraya cooks herself some curry and rice. Then sits down on the couch with her food to enjoy the movie. It was a horror movie and she enjoyed those back on earth. Before she knew it midnight had arrived and Sunny arrives home. She was being a little silent noticing Niraya was watching a horror movie. She jumps onto the couch causing Niraya to freak out and fall onto the floor. “Jesus sis! You're going to give me a heart attack.” She was just laughing of course. Niraya sighs. “Some rice and curry for you in the kitchen.” Sunny calm down. “Alright. Sorry, I just couldn’t help myself.” Niraya fixes her kimono and turns down the volume. “I should be heading to bed.” Sunny nods. “Alright have a good night sleep.” With that, Niraya goes and lays down in her bed hugging the plush fox.


	4. A Lesson to Remember

Niraya wakes up and goes into the bathroom. Sunny wasn’t in there this time so Niraya just enjoyed a long soak. When she finally decides to get out and head into the living room she notices a note on the table. “Just remembered had something to plan with the other CPUs will be gone for a while. -Sunny” Niraya gets herself some breakfast. When she was eating there was the sound of the elevator opening. She leans over to see one of the people from downstairs dropping off a package. “Thank you.” The person bows to Niraya before heading back down. 

Niraya gets up and checks on the package. It was from the inhuman tailor shop. “Oooh wonder what it looks like.” She opens the package to see the kimono she had rushed. She quickly changes into it. It fit pretty snuggly and moved in all the right places. “This is nice. I can’t wait to see there other goods I ordered.” She goes back to finish her breakfast before heading downstairs and looking at the bulletin board.

Upon arriving at the bulletin board she noticed what sunny said yesterday. There was a lot of mission that was silver tier or higher. Niraya looks at the lower tier jobs that were available and find one that was to slay some dogoos. She pulls it off the bulletin board and looks at the contact information before dialing the number. “Jack’s potions and arcane equipment. How may I be of service?” “Hi, I was calling about your job. Slay some dogoos?” “Oh my yes those little devils are chock full of jelly. Can you bring me about 7 jars of their jelly? I need to keep my potions stocked up.” “I will try sir.” the call ends.

Niraya heads into the city to get some jars and a bag. Luckily the adventurer supply shop wasn’t too far from the basilicom and sold everything she needed. And even more lucky was that Jazz was there. “Good morning Jazz.” Jazz nearly jumped hearing Niraya’s voice. “Oh sorry, I didn’t notice you come in.” Niraya chuckles. “Waiting for something?” Jazz nods. “It's a special item I need. The owner of this shop is currently making it.” Niraya sniffs the air she smelled something strange coming from the back. “Whatever the owner is up too it's got a very strong scent.” 

Jazz was looking at Niraya in a strange way. “Ni...Niraya.” Niraya turns to Jazz and she averts her gaze. Something was off about her at this moment. “What brings you into this shop?” Niraya smiles. “I got a job to obtain some dogoo jelly...but I need some jars...maybe a bag.” Jazz quickly goes through her bag and pulls out a leather bag and some jars. “Here ya go. Just be on your way. Wouldn’t want you to disturb the owner for something so trivial while he is busy.” Niraya nods. “Thanks, Jazz.” Niraya takes her leave but as she left she could sense that Jazz was staring at her.

Niraya heads to the train station and gets on the train that was heading to the forest. It stops at an outpost in the forest similar to the one in the plains. Except it was inside a really large tree. The tree town has many shops available and several adventurers of different ranks. She makes sure her copper badge is on before she goes to talk a few them on where Dogoos tend to hang around. It takes a bit but she gets information about a lake not too far from the town where the dogoos hang out.

Niraya heads out in search of this lake. The information was accurate it wasn’t too far from the town. She arrives at the lake and spots some dogoos at it. She readies her claws and heads into combat. The dogoos were quick to respond swarming her. Niraya could best them with a single slash but the number of them was starting to become an issue. Niraya breaks free of them and backs away from them. “How many are there here!?” 

Suddenly the dogoos started to fuse together and became a royal dogoo. “Oh, crap!” Niraya stands at the ready and launches a fireball. It goes into the dogoo and fizzles out. It laughs at this. “Come on this was a copper class fight! Why do I have a monster that just becomes huge!”

In her frustration, she charges into the Royal Dogoo and begins hacking away at it. Little did she know it was just wrapping around her. By the time she realized she was swallowed. She tries to break free of the Royal Dogoo but was not making much progress. She was having difficulty breathing and after a number of failed attempts, her strength fails her and she passes out.

She wakes up sometime later and begins puking up a lot of goo. “Wh..wh *bleh!* what happened?” the voice of a male could be heard. “Someone saw a person get ambushed by dogoo and we came to rescue them….are you ok?” Niraya doesn’t answer only puking up more goo. “Give it a minute to work its way out.” He starts putting jars next to Niraya. “We noticed you had jars. Figured you were after some dogoo jelly. Well, here ya go.” Niraya looks at the person talking. It was a strange hooded figure wearing a copper badge. “Glad we could help save another copper rank before she was killed. “I..i am grateful...how...how long was I in there?”

The man thinks for a bit. “Probably an hour. Strange thing being stuck inside a royal dogoo. He heals you as quickly as he kills you. So you could have been in there for a couple of hours.” Niraya takes a deep breath and looks around. She was sitting in what looked like a makeshift camp the strange hooded figure was with two other people. The other two were getting more goo from the royal dogoo.

Niraya stands up. “I should return and finish the quest. “I understand just be careful who knows what is out there in the woods these days.” Niraya packs up the jars and looks around. Nothing but woods for miles. “Little more to the left and straight ahead.” Niraya turns a bit more and points in the direction she was looking. The hooded figure nods. “Just be careful and not get caught in more royal dogoos.” Niraya sighs and takes her leave.

She walks through the woods without a point of reference she was completely lost. She keeps walking in the direction she was told or at least was heading the right way in general. She looks around and finds no roads no markings nothing. “Great job Niraya. A quick and simple job now you have been out here for hours...where am I anyway?” She quickly ascends a tree and looks around. She spots the tower in the distance the opposite way she was walking a second ago. “Crap! I got turned around.” looking around a bit more she doesn’t see anything other than trees and a storm coming from the direction she was walking. “And a storm is coming. I won't be able to see the tower if that gets overtop of me.”

Niraya quickly tries to cover as much ground as she could heading towards the tower. But the sound of thunder wasn’t too far behind. Won't be long till it is overhead. She quickly ascends a tree only to find out she was going the wrong way again. “WHAT!” Niraya was starting to panic. She was alone in the woods a storm approaching and she keeps getting off track of the direction to go. She quickly tries to find a place to make a shelter. Rain starts falling on her head before she could find a cave. She takes shelter inside the cave soaking wet as the rain just came down hard.

She sits in the back of the cave trying to stay dry. She didn’t even have time to find some firewood. Let alone gather some food. She sits there in the cave listening to the rain fall outside and the rumbles of thunder. She goes for her phone and notices she had no signal. “No bars... I hope it's just the cave.” Niraya walks over to the edge of the cave and there wasn’t much change she sticks her hand outside trying to find a signal. Suddenly she is zapped by a lightning bolt which caused her phone to explode in her hand. She crawls to the back of the cave where it was safe. Her hand was numb and bleeding. She pulls out a jar of dogoo jelly and sticks her hand it. She was hoping it would heal up.

She was slowly getting feeling back in her hand. “Just look at yourself Niraya alone in a cave lost in the forest starving and freezing.” She hears the voice. “But you're alive. That's what matters. You have survived what most people would call lethal.” Niraya looks around and spots Histoire sitting next to her. “Why are you here?” Histoire hugs Niraya. “Because I was worried you were in danger. And I was right. Though I can't bring you back home I now know where you are and can send help to find you. Just stay in the cave help will arrive by morning. I will be listening in. I will try my best to help you. Oh, and you can eat dogoo jelly if you are hungry.” She vanishes the next second to start gathering a rescue party. 

Niraya pulls out her wounded hand. She could feel pain from it and move it a little but it was obvious that she would need more than some goo. She puts her hand back in the jar at least the goo should keep her hand clean. She closes her eyes and tries to rest. The shock from being electrocuted was definitely something else. She drifted off to sleep. As she slept she could see her hometown. It was burning a woman grabs her and pulls her away. The woman was far taller than her...or rather Niraya was much shorter as she was a child.

She bolts awake a the sound of a tree falling nearby. She looks around the cave she was still alone. She was cold and it looked like the storm wasn’t letting up for hours. Suddenly a figure appears in the entrance. “Are you Niraya?” Niraya looks at them. “Who are you.” The figure walks in and holds out a fireball in her hand so they could see. Niraya looks at the person. It was a woman with rather soft features sparkly blue eyes wearing what looked like tank armor. She even sees tank treads for shin guards. “My name is Maria. I was sent out here to help find you...you are Niraya right?” Niraya nods.

Maria nods and leaves the fireball floating in the air as she pulls out the hand from the now red jar of blue dogoo jelly. “You have lost quite a bit of blood.” she grabs her bag and pulls out some bandages and wraps the hand in bandages. Then hands Niraya a piece of bread and some water. Niraya quickly eats the bread with her free hand and drink the water from the bottle. Maria smiles at her. “You will be alright. But we can't move you yet. I can keep your injuries from getting worse but until the storm lets up you will freeze before we get you back.” 

Histoire suddenly shows up. “Thank goodness I knew you could find her Maria.” She looks at Niraya. “It's going to be ok. Maria is the best tracker of all the CPUs. I knew she could find you.” Niraya lays back and closes her eyes exhausted. “Niraya? Niraya! NIRAYA!” Niraya was unconscious her wounds had taken a lot out of her. Going back to that dream. Or was it another memory. 

She was walking home from school with her grandmother. It was a little late as Niraya was part of a school play. Suddenly the sky was alight with an orange glow. A house had caught fire. Niraya sees the fire cross the road into yet another house. Someone has covered these houses in gasoline as they were lighting up one after another in quick succession. Her house was one of the first to light. Her grandma grabs her hand and leads Niraya away from the flames. She was crying out for her parents.

The dream goes on to the next day she was at a mass funeral for those who died in the fire. Her parents both of them died in the fire. Niraya was just a crying mess both of her parents were gone. Her sadness was so overwhelming she remembered the pain of losing her family.

About a day later she wakes up in her bed. Niraya had been crying in her sleep. She curls up where she sat and feels her tail brush against something. She looks over and it was her sister. She must have been trying to comfort her. Sunny was asleep Niraya carefully moves out of bed. She struggles to stand up and slowly walks into the next room. Maria was asleep on the couch and bolts awake when Niraya collapsed in the hallway.

Maria was looking around worried something had happened. “Huh? What?” She sees Niraya and quickly gets up. “NIRAYA!” She moves over and picks up Niraya and sits her down on the couch. “Take it easy now.” She goes into her bag and pulls out a strange red potion. Here this should get you some of your strength back.” Niraya drinks the potion as she was ordered to do. It tasted pretty bad but sure enough, she was able to sit up without much issue now.

Niraya looks at Maria then away from her blushing. “I need to thank you but I don't know how.” Maria pat's Niraya’s back. “Its ok just don't give up just because things take a turn for the worse. Tsygan told me about the group that saved you from a royal dogoo. They pointed you the right way but you were so far away from the town when I found you. You must have gotten lost.” Niraya blushes and looks away from Maria. “It's ok. I got lost my first time. Then I developed my skills at navigation which allowed to always find my way back.”

Niraya leans back on the couch as Sunny walks out of the bedroom. “Niraya I’m glad you're awake. You had me so worried.” Niraya looks away from Sunny. “Couldn’t even handle a bunch of dogoos. Then I get lost in the woods. I’m not cut out to be a CPU candidate.” Maria grabs Niraya’s shoulder and gives her a really hard slap to the face. “Listen here, missy! You will never be a CPU candidate with that attitude! You are stronger than you realize you survived by yourself with a severe injury long enough for help to arrive. A lesser being would have died the moment the lightning struck them!”

Niraya was just in shock as she listened to her tears coming to her eyes. Maria hugs her. “We candidates have to stick together just like our older sisters did.” She lets Niraya go and heads to the elevator. “I have done all I can. I’m sorry I can’t stay any longer. Tsygan will already be hounding me when I return home.” Nirya curls up on the couch lost in thought. Sunny moves Niraya’s head and lays it in her lap and gently caresses her head. “Just relax. Your home now.” Sunny turns on the TV and seeing Niraya not really paying attention to the TV puts on some cartoons and watches it while she waited for Niraya to calm down.

Niraya gets up after a few hours and hugs Sunny thankful to have such a kind older sister. Sunny hugs her back. “Come on Niraya get out of this funk. yes, you had a really bad day. But we all have bad days eventually.” Niraya sighs. “Your right. I shouldn’t be upset over this.” She lays back down. “But I am hungry. Haven’t eaten much for a while.” Sunny moves out from underneath her. “I will order us some food.” Niraya’s tail wags hearing that but stays laying down.

Once the order was placed Sunny leaves to go pick it up. Leaving Niraya there. Niraya decides to get up and get changed. She walks into her room and goes to find her other kimono which should have been washed at that point. Only to see her wardrobe full of clothes. She picks out an outfit and strips naked. Before taking the outfit to the bathroom and starting herself a nice hot bath.

She lays in the hot water letting it ease her pain. There was a knock on the door and Sunny slightly opened it to respect Niraya’s privacy. “Food is here when you're finished with your bath. “Thank you, sis.” Sunny chuckles. “Your welcome. Don't take long or it will get cold.” Niraya had already spent about 10 minutes in the hot water. It was about time to leave. She takes one last dip under the water before getting out and drying herself off. Once somewhat dry she puts on her new outfit. A T-shirt with some fancy art of the town. And some shorts that went to about her knees.

She walks out of the bathroom and sits down at the table where a large meal was ready for her. A double cheeseburger with extra secret sauce large plate of onion rings and a chocolate lava cake. Niraya was shocked by this. Sunny chuckles. “Figured you would like a burger. Now eat before it gets cold.” Sunny was already halfway through what looked like a triple-decker monster of a burger. Niraya starts eating and was very pleased with its taste. By the time sunny finished her one burger Niraya had polished off her plate and immediately regrets it. “That was a little too quick.” Sunny chuckles. “Go lay down. The CPUs are coming to visit today. So everyone and their CPU candidates can get acquainted.” Niraya nods and lays down on the couch. Sunny cleans up the table before heading downstairs to wait for her sisters' arrival.

The elevator door opens and Niraya looks over to see Maria with someone else. Niraya sits up and looks at them. Maira bow to Niraya. “I’m back...oh This is Tsygan. She is my older sister...though you probably couldn’t tell that by her height.” Tsygan sighs. “Yes yes make all the short jokes you want.” Niraya looks at Tsygan. She had a cold exterior to her. Her black hair that was tied in a bun. Her eyes were emerald green and showed some hidden anger.

Maria walks out onto the patio with Tsygan and they talk to each other while waiting for the others. Shortly after the elevator opens up again and a young woman and an older woman wearing matching kimonos walk in. They both bow to Niraya. “Greetings.” Nirara bows back. “My name is Niraya. What are yours?” The older one speaks up first. She had long blond hair that was hanging past her hips, and her teal eyes reflected a kind soul. “My name is Sammy. But people just call me Sam for short.” The younger woman speaks up with a similar look except her hair was about shoulder length. “My name is Aura. It's nice to meet you Niraya.” 

Aura looks at Sam. “You can sit with her. Just don't do anything rude.” Aura smiles and sits next to Niraya and hugs her. “You're so cute! I heard stories of Kitsune. I never thought I would get a chance to see one!” Niraya pulls herself free. “Careful. I just ate a large meal.” Aura blushes and keeps to herself. “I’m sorry.” Niraya hugs her in return. “It's ok. No hard feelings.” This made Aura’s blush deepen. They talk for a bit before the elevator opens up for the third time. 

This time three people enter from the elevator. One was Sunny the other two looked like polar opposite of each other. The gentle-looking one had red hair and gentle sky blue eyes. Her outfit was a dress fit for a royal ball. The other person looked like a bodybuilder and her outfit kinda matched. A two-piece jumpsuit that hugged her form. The gentle-looking woman speaks up first. “My name is Rose. it is a pleasure to meet you.” She gives a slight curtsy bow before sitting down at the table. The bodybuilder speaks up at that moment. With a mighty flex and a smile on her face, she introduces herself. “The name is Bassett and there is nothing I can't solve with my own two hands!”

Niraya was a little intimidated by her. “It's nice to meet the both of you.” Sunny opens the door to the patio. “Hey, it's time get in here.” Maria and Tsygan return inside. Tsygan taking a seat at the table Maria standing next to her. Niraya gets up and walks over to her sister. Aura does the same. Sunny looks around the room and smiles. “This is the first time we have met like this in a long while.” Tsygan nods. “Yes, it has. I feel a little nostalgic from this meeting.”

Rose was the next one to speak up. “Excuse me. But wasn’t there something you wanted to talk about Sunny?” Sunny nods. “Yes. yes, there was. I was wondering if you all would like the idea of a yearly competition. Not for shares mind you. But just a friendly competition between us.” Bassett smiles. “I like this idea!” Rose speaks up. “Use your inside voice, Bassett. The last thing we need is for your booming voice to break a window.” Bassett blushes at this. “Sorry, sis.” It was interesting to see that Rose the gentle one was the older sister when Bassett acts completely opposite of her.

Tsygan speaks up. “What will this competition be?” Sunny nods. “It's just a series of events. Stuff we CPUs can do. We can work on the details later. I just wanted to get your opinion on this idea.” Rose speaks up again. “I know fighting amongst ourselves isn’t a good thing….but maybe doing so under some strict guidelines could be therapeutic.” everyone except Niraya seemed to agree to this. Niraya was just confused to what was going on.

Sam was the next to speak up. “We can work out the details later.” Aura nods. “Was there anything else we were needing to do here?” Sunny thinks for a bit. “No, I just wanted a little meet and greet so the CPU candidates can get acquainted with everyone.” Tsygan nods. “Well since we have accomplished that. We need to take our leave. Some bandits have made a nest in our city and we have been trying to flush them out.” Sam stands up and gives a slight bow. “I think we will leave as well.” Aura didn’t look like she wanted to leave but doesn’t oppose. 

Rose smiles at Sunny. “I think we will stay for a bit.” Sunny nods. “Alright...Bassett feel like giving Niraya a few lessons?” Niraya flinches hearing that. Bassett chuckles. “I wouldn’t mind one bit.” Rose nods. “Looks like that is settled.” Bassett walks over to the door to the patio. “Come Niraya.” Niraya walks out onto the patio with Bassett. Bassett chuckles. “If Sunny is asking for my help that must mean your still new to this.” Niraya blushes hearing Bassett's response. “I...I failed my last mission...hard.”

Bassett laughs. “Don’t get so down about it. You couldn’t have failed worse than me. I had to protect a guy exploring a ruin. And I ended up setting off all the traps. It was a miracle he made it out alive.” Niraya chuckles at this. “Ok. maybe your is worse than mine. I just failed to deliver jelly after getting lost in the woods and struck by lightning.” Bassett chuckles at that. “Well, how are you combat skills?” Niraya shakes her head. "the dogoos bested me" Bassett nods. "Ready yourself I will help you get stronger!"

Niraya summons her claws and Bassett summons her knuckle bracers. These bracers went over every finger of her hand and she could move her hand freely. Almost like her hands were the bracers. She taunts Niraya to hit her and Niraya charges in. Bassett was swift but Niraya was nimble. Niraya could avoid her punches and returns the favor with a few hits. Niraya backs off looking for another opening.

Bassett seemed to enjoy the pain she was in. “very good Niraya but I wasn’t going all out. Think you can keep up with me?” Suddenly Bassett was on top of her and Niraya was on the defensive. Bassett was a lot faster now and Niraya was having issues finding an opening to strike back. There was the sound of a whip crack and Bassett stops moving. Niraya looks over and there was a platinum-haired woman with piercing blue eyes. “Bassett I told you to help her learn. Not beat her to a pulp!” Her tone was that of a mother about to spank her child. Bassett bows to her. “I am sorry Rose. I got carried away.” Niraya looks at Rose confused. Rose was a gentle person. The person she was looking at had an air of danger.

Sunny speaks up from the doorway. “Niraya meet Rose’s other personality. This is usually the one she uses when she is in her HDD form. So it's rare to see her like this without going HDD.” Rose bows to Niraya. “I’m sorry we had to meet like this. But someone needs to learn to hold back.” With a flick of her wrist, Rose whips Bassett this causes Niraya to flinch since she was close by. Niraya backs away from Bassett as she takes her punishment. Though it was hard to tell if she was being disciplined or getting off on it. As Bassett was showing no signs of any emotion from this.

After a minute of whipping Rose stops. “Now help Niraya improve or I will do it for you!” Niraya flinches hearing that. Sunny goes to talk to Rose to get her to calm down. Bassett straightens up. “Terribly sorry about that. I get my blood flowing and I just can't hold back...from what I could tell you are very nimble on your feet but you didn’t use any martial arts.” Niraya tilts her head. “Martial arts...like the fighting style with the punching and the kicking?” Bassett shakes her head. “Martial arts are attack skills that are able to amplify your attack power.”

Bassett looks up to the sky and points at something. “See that cloud?” Niraya looks up and sees a cloud overhead. “Yea I see it.” Bassett readies herself then punches the air while shouting. “Concussion blast!” Niraya looks up at the cloud and suddenly it gets a big hole in the middle of it. “You...you did that with your fist...where I came from that wasn’t possible.”

Rose chuckles. “So that explains it.” Niraya looks at Rose she was back to her nice self. “You looked like you were fighting like your claws was the only way to do harm to your opponent. But Martial arts and Magic spells are ways to improve your attacks if you find the right opening and time to use them. There are even skills and magic that can boost your own stats, your allies stats, or cure stats that can be an issue.”

Sunny nods. “Rose is right. Without using martial arts, skills, or magic. You just end up flailing your arms around hoping your opponent falls before you tire yourself out.” Niraya looks away as they were not wrong. Rose cracks her whip getting Niraya’s attention. “You will fight again this time think about your fight. Plan each move. Something doesn’t go as expected quickly rethink your plan. But I want you to do it with skills and magic. You hit Bassett with a basic attack I will whip you.” Rose was the more sadistic personality again and Sunny was sighing. “Sorry, Niraya. She has spoken.”

Bassett stands at the ready and Niraya takes her place. Rose cracks her whip and Bassett starts. Niraya could nimbly move around Bassett but attacks her with her claw suddenly she felt a sharp pain on her back. Rose had whipped her then Bassett punches her sending her to the far side of the patio. “I should whip you again for not focusing on the fight!” Sunny pats Rose on the back. “Give her a break. She went and registered as a copper rank as a mean to prove to herself she can get stronger.”

Niraya looks at Bassett ready to keep fighting. Bassett motions for Niraya to come at her. Niraya does but this time shoots a fireball at Bassett’s head. Bassett blocks the fireball but Niraya goes between Bassett’s legs and shoots another fireball from below. Bassett chuckles feeling the fireball hit her. “Good I felt that one. But keep in mind your magic is limited during a fight. So use it sparingly.” Niraya growls and leaps at Bassett and Bassett caught Niraya. “Nice try!” Niraya smiles at her and hits her face with a fireball. Bassett lets Niraya go and back off. “Ah, crap. That got in my eye.”

Niraya looks at Bassett worried. “I’m sorry I didn’t mean to actually hurt you.” Niraya gets in close but hears Sunny sigh. Bassett quickly uppercuts Niraya. “Dizzy punch!” This sends her onto the roof. Rose leaps up onto the roof to check on Niraya. Niraya was laying there a bit dazed. Rose chuckles at her. “Your kindness will you downfall if you can't tell when your opponent is faking. Rose Helps Niraya up and back down to the patio. “I think that is enough Bassett. We don't need to harm her.” Niraya shakes her head and pushes away from Rose. “No, I want to keep going. I need to learn these lessons!”

Rose gives a rather disturbing smile. “I see you are just like your sister. Stubborn and headstrong.” Rose chuckles. “Fine. if that is what you want. Bassett. Feel free to keep going till Niraya is unable to stand again.” Bassett smiles. “Let's go foxy!” Niraya readies herself and they start again. Sunny chuckles and looks at Rose. "those two fighting it out remind me of when we used to train like that." Rose giggles. "yes yes it does. too bad we have been to busy to do something like that...though that competition could be a way for us to do that again." Sunny nods. "we still have much to discuss before we attempt that. but I would be fun to go against you again in mock combat."

Niraya skills slowly improve as they fought. But when they finished Niraya was the one left bloody and beaten on the floor with quite a number of whip marks bruises as well as a few cuts here and there. Bassett was cut up and burnt a bit but still standing. Rose helps Niraya up onto her feet. “You got what you wanted. Now bow to your opponent.” Niraya bows but had to hold onto rose to keep herself from falling over. Bassett returns the bow. Sunny walks over and takes Niraya inside. “You did well Niraya. You are one fast learner” Niraya chuckles and passes out in her arms. Sunny kisses her forehead and carries Niraya to her bed. “Good night Niraya.”


	5. Festaval of Lights

Niraya wakes up the next morning feeling very stiff and sore. She didn’t even want to get out of bed. She forces herself to get out of bed when she could smell some food being cooked in the kitchen. She slowly walks out of her room and into the kitchen where Aura was there making some breakfast. “Hi, Niraya.” Niraya looks around and doesn’t see sunny. “Where is Sunny?” Aura looks at Niraya questioningly. “I thought she told you. But we are going to Mura.”

Niraya rubs her eyes and yawns a bit. “Ok. I don’t think she told me... I don't mind helping. But I am so very sore from that sparring match with Bassett.” Aura smiles at her and holds out her hand. A green ring appears around it. “Minor healing aura!” Niraya feels her skin tingle a bit and the soreness slowly ebbing away. “i...ugh...Thank you.” Aura chuckles and hands Niraya a plate of french toast. “Now eat up. As soon as we land there won't be much time to eat.”

Niraya quickly eats the food which reminded her of her mother’s cooking. And tears come down her face. He hides this fact from Aura. When she finished Aura takes Niraya’s hand and leads her to the landing pad downstairs. There was an airship there. More specifically it was Sunny’s airship. “Greeting Niraya. Your sister entrusted me with transporting you to Mura while she and lady Sam went on without you.” Aura nods and looks at Niraya. “Ready to go?” Niraya nods and aura drags her into the ship.

Aura was a little clingy but Niraya didn’t hurt her feelings. They sit down on the sofa that was in the airship and the pilot stars heading off to the location. Aura looks at Niraya. “So ugh...what did you do before you were brought here?” Niraya looks at her confused. “I was a video-game programmer.” Her eyes lit up. “Really!” Niraya looks at her confused. “What about you?” Aura sighs and looks away. “I was a high schooler. Senor year when our school field trip went horribly wrong. we were left stranded in the woods with barely anything to survive on.”

Niraya hugs her. “I’m sorry to hear that.” Aura hugs Niraya back and begins crying. “It was so terrible. I haven’t even told my sister this...but we were out there for days. People were starting to starve. They started killing one of us off so the others could live. I refused to eat...I watched in horror as they killed my best friend right there in front of me and began cooking her. I couldn’t take it and ran off on my own fearing I would be next. I end up dying when they finally caught up to me. It was horrible. It was like they were no longer people.”

Aura just breaks down crying into Niraya’s chest. She wraps her arms around her and hugs her. “It's going to be ok. They can't hurt you anymore.” Aura stayed crying the whole trip and Niraya does her best to comfort her. “You really shouldn’t have kept it bottled up like that.” Aura looks up at Niraya then away from her. “Your right... I should have told my sister sooner.” Niraya wipes away the tears. “Please calm down. We're almost there.” Aura nods and starts to calm down. “Th...thanks Niraya. I needed that.”

Niraya smiles at her as the ship lands. Niraya gets up and pulls Aura with her as she finishes wiping her tears. Both of their older sisters were there waiting for them. Niraya looks around and sees that the town looked like it was pulled right out of a history book. Many of the buildings had Japanese architecture and it all flowed together rather beautifully. If she didn’t know any better she would probably say it was a modern take of the feudal era of Japan.”

Niraya was amazed by the building that she forgot she was still holding onto aura who was pulling her along. Sunny snaps her fingers in front of Niraya’s face to get her attention. “Why didn’t you change your clothes?” Niraya looks down and notices she was wearing the same thing. “I’m sorry I kinda didn’t want to get up this morning. But my stomach made me.” Sam chuckles hearing this. “Aura you only needed to pick her up. You didn’t need to rush her out the door.” Aura bows to Sam. “ I’m sorry.”

Sam points to the building they were next to. “Take her up to your room and give her one of your kimonos to use. We don't need her looking like she sleeps in a barn.” Aura nods and leads Niraya inside. The building was their basilicom. There wasn’t much that made this building stand out from where Niraya was standing. But once inside there was clearly a difference. 

The main room had a large rock garden in the middle on the edge of those was some desks where the employees they wore strange headgear that wouldn’t look out of place in the feudal era of Japan. The adventurers were busy going in and out of the place. Aura pulls Niraya off to the side where a couple of guard in samurai armor guard a door. Aura leads Niraya through the door. On the other side was a large room with a cookpot in the middle. Looking around she could see the floor was a strange mat covering every square inch of the floor.

Aura speaks up. “Take off your shoes.” Niraya does what was asked of her before Aura leads her to one of the sliding doors that led to her room. The room was small but it was very efficiently laid out. The bed was unfortunately filled with stuffed animals. “For a high schooler, you sure have a lot of stuffed animals.” Aura blushes hearing that. “I won most of them in the UFO crane game.” Niraya figured that was similar to the claw machines back home. Aura pulls out one of her kimonos and hands it to Niraya. “That should fit you.” Niraya nods but waits. Aura realizing what Niraya was waiting for quickly leaves the room shutting the door behind her. “Sorry.”

Niraya changes into the kimono. It was a bit smaller than what she was used too so she kept the shorts on. Niraya walks out of the bedroom with her dirty shirt. “Where do you want me to put this for now?” Aura takes it and quickly runs it to the washing machine before returning. “Should be finished when we return. “Old style house but modern equipment?” Aura chuckles. “The kitchen is SO out of place but I enjoy the aesthetic of feudal Japan.”

They return to their sisters who were waiting at the landing pad. “Aura what did you do with her clothes?” Aura bows to Sam when she asked. “I put it in the wash with the other colors. Though she didn’t hand me her pants.” Niraya speaks up at this point. “Your kimono is a little short on me. I’m just wearing the pants as a precaution.” Aura nods to show she understands.

Sunny and Sam look at them. “Ready to go?” Niraya looks at her confused. “Go where?” Sunny chuckles. “To the festival. Sam has a yearly festival that takes place in her town. All are welcome. The others should already be here. You two go on and have some fun together.” Aura looks at Niraya with stars in her eyes again. “Ok ok. Lead on.” Aura grabs Niraya’s hand and pulls her through the basilicom and out to the festival grounds.

The festival grounds were filled with various booths to do various activities. Aura stops at one of these booths. “Ah, welcome miss Aura...who’s your friend?” Niraya looks at the booth operator and it was a man in his 90s his beard was extremely long it almost touched the floor. Aura smiles at him. “Hi, Mr. Tamarine. This my friend Niraya….Niraya this is the owner of the small arcade store nearby. He is the one that owns the UFO machines.” the man chuckles. “You spent many of days trying to get some of those stuffed animals.” Aura smiles. “And I’m proud I did. I eventually mastered that machine of yours!” The old man nods in agreement. “There isn’t anything can put in there that you can't get out with your skills.”

Niraya looks down at the little game the man had set up. It was a bunch of small rubber ducks swimming around in a small tub. “There are many prizes to be had as each duck has a number. And each one has a matching number to another. Each attempt will cost you 5 silver pieces. Pull two ducks and get a matching pair you win.” Aura hands the man some silver pieces and looks at the ducks deciding which ones to grab. Niraya watches as she grabs one and flips it over. “Ok, so I found number twenty-two...where is your buddy.”

Niraya grabs one and flips it over and it was also twenty-two. The old man chuckles. “Well, you bested my game. Which prize would you like.” Niraya looks at the old man confused. “But I didn’t what this one was yet.” The old man laughs louder this time. “I am not been given the nickname Game-Master for no reason. You two have won my game now claim a prize.” Aura look at Niraya and smiles. “You pick I have plenty of these at home.” Niraya chuckles. “I noticed.” Niraya looks at the various choices. There was a wide range of plushies to choose from. She points at one in the back. The old man stands up and grabs the one Niraya was pointing towards. “A good choice. A fox for the kitsune.” Niraya gets handed the snow fox she pointed at and Niraya hugs it. “Thank you Mr. Game Master...and thank you Aura.” Aura smiles at Niraya. “Come on there is plenty to do.” Niraya follows Aura while holding onto the snow fox plush.

After a bit of fun and games, Niraya had a bag of various prizes. Some of them were Aura’s Niraya was just being nice and carrying them. They bump into Maria who was at the shooting gallery. Everyone was watching her as she was skillfully hitting every target without fail. “As expected of maria. She is pretty good with ranged weapons. I was sure she was here.” Maria gets handed a large dragon plush. “YAY High score!”

Niraya grabs a hold of the plush. “Careful there. Maybe we should drop these off at the basilicom before we continue.” Maria seeing Niraya trying not to get crushed by the dragon nods with that idea. “Yea might be the best plan of action.” Aura helps navigate Maria through the crowd as Niraya followed behind. Though the plush dragon was only as big as Maria it was still a little cumbersome. They arrive at the basilicom and drop off their prizes in Aura’s room before heading back to the festivities.

The group traveled together chatting about their experiences so far with the festival. “Took me a while to find a shooting gallery with a prize I liked. And well you saw me dominate!” Niraya chuckles. “I’m kinda surprised you're not wearing your armor.” Aura nods. “It's odd seeing you wearing a more normal attire.” Maria rubs the back of her head. “Tsygan insisted I come without my armor. So I just followed orders.” 

Aura speaks up. “Let us get some cotton candy!” Niraya chuckles. “It's really hard to tell you're a Highschooler when you act like a child in a candy store on free candy day.” Aura puffs out her cheeks. “I am not!” Maria laughs at this. “Yea I see it now.” Aura looks at Maria. “Not you too!” Aura playfully punches Maria in the back. “Take it back!” a booming voice comes from behind them. “Aura calm down your acting like a child.” Niraya turns around and it was Bassett who was carrying around a giant mallet. “Hi, Bassett...what's with the mallet?” Bassett looks at the mallet. “This thing? Had to get it repaired. I am actually running one of these stands.

Maria chuckles. “What is it beat me at gavel? What do you also put heavy weights on yours?” Bassett only smiles. Aura shakes her head. “Even then it’s not even fair.” Bassett follows the group until they got to her stand. Rose was there watching over the stand while Bassett got the hammer fixed. “Thanks, sis I can take over from here.” Rose nods and takes her leave. Niraya looks at the two machines one looked fairly normal the other machine had a huge weight on it. It must have been at least 10 times as big. “Holy crap Bassett. A bit much?” She shakes her head. “It's just the right amount that I can’t ring it every single time.”

Aura speaks up. “Well she is busy running a booth come on we can go get some cotton candy.” Aura was pushing both Niraya and Maria. “Hey, Hey! No need to push.” Maria frees herself from Aura and follows her. Niraya was just walking normally. Aura was looking around for a cotton candy booth. She spots one and stops in front of it. “Three cones please.” The person behind the booth nods and makes three cones of cotton candy.

The person hands each of them one of the cones and Aura pay for it all. Maria chuckles. “Still proving my point.” Aura puffs up her cheeks again. “Quit being mean. It's a festival.” Niraya nudges Aura. “Calm down already. We are having fun.” Aura blushes and quietly eat her cotton candy. Maria chuckles to herself as Niraya happily eats her cotton candy.

Maira takes the lead and leads them to a lake area where people were crafting lanterns and sending them onward into the sky. The trio watches the lanterns fly high into the sky. “It’s very beautiful.” Aura nods. “Yes, it is.” Niraya sighs thinking back to her world. But it only saddened her. Maria was the first to say something. “Everything ok Niraya?” Niraya shakes her head. “So many memories of the world I came from. All of them now painful to see.” Aura and Maria hug Niraya. “Then let us make new memories. To replace those painful ones.” Niraya hugs them both. 

Then they were all crushed in a strong bear hug. “Aww having a group hug without me.” Aura breaks free. “Way to ruin the moment Bassett.” Bassett chuckles. “I ran out of prizes who knew some strong people showed up to these things. Might have to lessen my handicap.” Maria sighs. “Then no one would win.” Bassett shrugs. “Well, it was fun while it lasted. So what are you all up too.” Niraya shrugs “I honestly do not know. We have been here for a while now and earned many prizes.”

Bassett chuckles. “Did little aura get her candy.” Aura starts punching Bassett. “Why do you all have to tease me so!” Bassett pats Aura on the head. “Quit before you hurt yourself…our sisters went out to take care of a problem. They wanted us here should some trouble happen. But Rose says the situation has been dealt with so were free to leave.” Aura seemed upset with this. “Noooo I want us to stay and watch the fireworks!” Maria sighs. “We can stay for the fireworks.” Both Niraya and Bassett nods in agreement.

Aura was extremely happy to hear that. “I know a perfect spot to be to watch the fireworks!” She grabs Niraya’s hand and pulls her along weaving through the crowd. Niraya does her best not to bump into people as she gets dragged along. Maria and Bassett were following behind. Aura takes her to the top of a nearby parking garage that had a small hanging garden section on top of it. Aura stops pulling Niraya when they arrived where she wanted them to be. She was clearly excited.

A few minutes later the firework show starts. It was a beautiful thing to see. The well-choreographed fireworks going off at set intervals made for a very breathtaking display. These fireworks almost seem to come alive creating unique and amazing shapes from tigers, monkeys, even a dragon. Niraya was amazed by these displays. Aura chuckles seeing Niraya’s amazement with the display. “The mages who put on these shows work long and hard to ensure they just as safe as they are beautiful.” Niraya looks at Aura and smiles at her. “Far better than the ones I know of.” Aura chuckles at this as they keep watching.

The show ends in epic fashion and everyone in town was cheering. Niraya was cheering with them. Once the festivities winded down Niraya, Aura, Bassett, and Marie head back to Aura’s place meet up with their sisters. Upon arriving at Aura’s home they were greeted by Rose. She was in her HDD form and she looked like a dominatrix with her outfit. Skin tight suit with various leather straps adorned with chrome spikes. “Bassett, did you have fun?” 

Bassett bows to Rose. “Yes, ma’am I had plenty of fun messing with people with the gavel challenge.” Rose chuckles and holds out her and motions for her to follow. “Good now say bye to your friends. We have some interrogation to go back home.” Bassett smiles at this and hugs Niraya, Aura, and Maria. “Thanks for the fun but time to get to work!” Bassett lets them all go and follows Rose to the landing bay.

Niraya notices Aura shiver. “I feel ya. She has a very...interesting personality.” Niraya was trying to be as nice as possible about what she was saying. The last thing she needed was some whippings before heading home. Maira opens the door to Aura’s home and leads them inside. “Tsygan says they will be busy for the rest of the night. Sad that Bassett had to leave. But then again. She was always a busybody. Whenever they did while the festival went on must have been very serious to have to interrogate someone.”

Both Niraya and Aura shiver at the thought of Rose interrogating someone. Niraya could practically hear the whips cracking as she thought about it.

Miraya puts on a movie and goes into the kitchen for some popcorn. Aura moves the coffee table and sets up the pullout couch. “You two can share the couch...but nothing wrong with using it to watch some TV.” Niraya cheers. “Yea girls night!” Maria cheers from the kitchen but Aura was confused. “You really had a boring high school life if you don't know what girls night means. Its just friends no boys allowed!” Aura nods to show she understood and quickly finishes setting up the fold out couch.

Maria returns with some popcorn. “Alrighty! Scooch on over this one's a classic!” Maria starts the movie and they all watch it together. They stay up until it was nearly morning before going to sleep. Aura ended up passing out with Maria and Niraya on the fold out couch with how late they stayed up.

When Niraya wakes up it was lunch time. Somehow during their sleep Niraya ended up in the floor with Aura hanging over the edge close to falling off. She stretches where she was and gets up off the floor. “Note to self. Maria doesn’t get to make the popcorn.” She felt a little queasy remembering the slightly burnt flavor of the popcorn. She walks into the kitchen and makes some quick ham and cheese sliders.

Both Aura and Maria wake up roughly at the same time. Aura just laid in the bed still half asleep. Maria, on the other hand, looked like she was drooling as she was waiting for Niraya to finish cooking the sliders. “Maria your drooling all over the kitchen floor.” She wipes her mouth but she was still drooling. Niraya sighs and goes to get aura who had sat up but was staring at the wall. “Aura. Aura over here. Come get some lunch.” Aura looks over at Niraya and slowly follows her voice.

Once the sliders were finished Niraya splits them up evenly and hands them both a couple. Aura slowly eats with a knife and fork as Maria seemed to be eating it by slamming her face onto the table. Niraya couldn’t help but chuckle seeing them both act so strangely first thing in the morning. A figure walks into the kitchen and Niraya recognizes her right away. “Tsygan. What brings you by?” Tsygan sighs. “That little food monster you have.” Tsygan wasn’t in her HDD form but it was clear she was meaning Maria.

Maria smiles at Tsygan. “Its good you should try a bite!” Tsygan looks at Niraya. “Thank you for keeping this little food monster in check. But it's time we head home.” Maria pouts at this. “Aww, but I want to eat more of Niraya’s cooking.” Tsygan pulls Maria out by the ear. Histoire shows up next. “Good morning Niraya...Oh! Ugh...One moment.” Histoire pokes Aura in the neck at two very specific spots opposite of each other. Aura jumps. Histy! Why did you do that!” Histoire chuckles. “Because you're a zombie when you don't get enough sleep. So I just helped wake you up.”

Aura looks down at her food with a puffed up face. Histoire chuckles and walks over to the pan of sliders. “Smells good Niraya. Did Maria give you any issues? She really loves greasy foods.” Niraya chuckles and shakes her head. “That little food monster. Nah I didn’t even notice.” Histoire chuckles. “Tsygan picked her up I guess. Well, I got to get back. I was checking up on you since this marks your first week in this world.” Niraya looks down at her food. “A week already...this world...it's not terrible...i...i just wish it wasn’t such a heavy burden on my shoulders.” Histoire hugs Niraya. “Everyone feels this when they first arrived here. You will get used to it. And you will realize it's not bad.”

Aura speaks up. “My first month here I stayed in hiding never leaving this house. I was scared of everything fearing that at any moment the pressure would crush me and leave me for dead.” Histoire nods. Bassett the strong brute that she is. She actually cried every day wanting to return to her boring desk job. Look at her now. Finding new ways to have fun...though her sister is a bit harsh on her at times. But you can't pick your family.” Niraya gives Histoire a questioning look. “You picked us to become CPU candidates. How do you not have control over who will be our sister.”

Histoire rubs the back of her head. “Yes, I can pull you from another world. But you're not guaranteed to become anything. I pick a person and then the cosmos decides if they are allowed to cross over, or I need to find a new person. Once they are brought to this world they could have been attached to any of the Cities...even a new one could spring up out of nowhere with a CPU in it.”

Niraya sighs. “Well, you should get back to work. Sam and Sunny should be back soon.” Histoire sighs as well. “Sometimes I really do hate my job...though I guess you know that feeling.” Niraya chuckles but Aura was confused by that statement. Histoire takes her leave.

Nirarya and Aura finish eating shortly afterward. Aura puts up the folding couch and takes a nap. Niraya puts away the remaining sliders before going into the laundry room and fetching her shirt. She puts it on after taking off Aura’s Kimono that she was borrowing. When she returned to the living room Sunny was there and makes a shush hand gesture and motions for Niraya to follow her stops at the doorway and doubles back to get the prizes she had won. She had to take a minute to separate them into piles. Niraya takes her pile but also notices Maria’s prize was still there. Niraya leaves it alone as Sam could always ship it to Maria. 

Once Niraya meets up with Sunny with her bag of prizes was she greeted with a hug. “Did you have fun?” Niraya nods. “Aura kinda paid for the games but let me have some of the prizes.” Sunny chuckles. “You can pay her back later. For now, it's time to return home. Niraya nods and after her ship lands they get on it and head back home.

Suddenly their ship was rocked by an explosion. The pilot could be heard shouting from the cockpit. “Damn. it! What did they hit us with!” Niraya could feel the ship losing altitude. Sunny quickly leaps out of the ship in her HDD form to hunt down those who shot her ship. Niraya and the pilot were left on the ship as he struggles to keep it flying. “Damn Bandits! Brace for impact!” Niraya hearing that holds onto the table with all her might. The ship hits the ground and it sent spinning before coming to rest at the edge of the forest.

Niraya was thrown around the living quarters of the ship pretty violently. She feels pain all over her body. A she looks at herself she could see some blood. It wasn’t a lot but it was there. She struggles to get up onto her feet and walk over to the main door. As soon as she reached the door she feels herself get kicked knocking her onto the couch. She catches herself and looks over at who kicked her. It was a large mechanical figure. “I thought you said this was her transport! She isn’t here!” A second voice could be heard. “She must have jumped off or got thrown out of the ship.”

The mechanical figure grabs ahold of the door frame and tears it open allowing him entry. He was very large taller than Brutus by quite a bit. He had crimson red armor and where its face should have been was just a ball of light. “She is gone go find her! Don’t you dare fail me!” Niraya struggles to get up but this only gets the figures attention. “No, you don’t you're not off the hook yet. If she is transporting you on her personal craft that means you have some value. I will be using you as a hostage.” Niraya pulls out her claw weapons. “I won't let you use me like I’m some toy!”

The figure laughs. “You can’t possibly be serious? You think you can fight me! The all-powerful Warmonger!” Niraya flinches hearing that name. “So you have heard of me. I’m honored. But sadly I’m on a schedule!” He rips the roof off of the ship and Niraya quickly runs away. She couldn’t fight this thing what was she thinking. “A chase really? Niraya runs towards the town that was ahead of her. She wasn’t sure what town it was but she wasn’t about to let Warmonger have her.

Warmonger runs after Niraya and easily catches up to her. She quickly stops causing Warmonger to run right past her. She then quickly launches several fireballs at Warmonger who took the hits like they were nothing. “Come on now! If that was your best attempt at hurting me then you are nothing compared to me. He holds out his hand and summons up a larger fireball. It had to be car-sized at least. He fires it at Niraya and she summons her claws and tries to block it.

The fireball explodes launching her back into the ship. Her body colliding with what remained of the ship caused it to move. Niraya opens her eyes to find out she was on the ship’s floor. She tries to get up but couldn’t muster the strength. She watches helplessly as Warmonger approached. His laugh echoing throughout the damaged ship. Just as warmonger was next to the ship the engines fire up and they were launched into the air. Niraya could hear the engines screeching in protest. The pilot was doing what he could to firing the engines every now and then so they could escape from Warmonger. After about the sixth firing the engines explode again and this time when they crash. The ship went nose first hitting the ground and launching Niraya some distance away.

She lays there for felt like years. Waiting for Warmonger to appear and claim her as his prize. But he didn’t show. The area she had landed was very silent and still. She forces herself to sit up. Only managing to pull herself up a few inches. She looks around her she couldn’t see Warmonger at all. She sees trees all around her and the wreckage of a ship. a person in a white outfit was standing next to the ship. The pilot was taking a moment to recover from what just happened. Niraya collapses and passes out right there.

She is woken up a few minutes later by Sunny. “Niraya! Oh, Niraya I’m so so SOO sorry! I should have been there.” She was crying. Niraya reaches up and wipes Sunny's tears away. “Don’t cry. I’m not going anywhere yet. I just...i need to get stronger. Warmonger was the one who attacked us.” Sunny looks back at the ship. “Warmonger did this?” Niraya nods. “Did you get a good look at him?” Niraya shakes her head. “She wore a strange red mechanical suit... I couldn’t tell if he was human or anything else behind that armor.” Sunny lays Niraya down gently and pulls out a potion before lifting Niraya head. “Here drink. Should takes the edge off.”

Niraya drinks the potion. The pain was subsiding but was still there. Sunny then gently helps Niraya back onto her feet. “Come on. There is a train stop to too far from here. We can use that to get back into town.” Niraya nods and with Sunny's help, they get back to the safety of the basilicom. Though many people were scared of what they saw. While Niraya laid at home to recover Sunny was out and about doing some damage control.


	6. Jazz's Past

Niraya gets up early the next day and goes through her daily routine. Once she was clean and dressed she quickly makes some breakfast before heading downstairs. Sunny was still asleep when Niraya leaves. She heads downstairs and sees some people already starting their day with some adventuring. When Niraya was looking at the board a familiar looking woman steps in front of her and grabs a job from the gold section. 

Niraya speaks up. “What you up to today Jazz?” Jazz jumped a bit. “Oh hey, Niraya!” She smiles at Niraya. “Going to do a solo mission. Though I wouldn’t mind you tagging along if you want some experience. Niraya nods. “Sure I was looking for a quest to do.” Jazz nods and contacts the person who posted the quest. Jazz was pretty quick with the conversation. Once she hangs up she looks at Niraya with a smile. “Should be pretty quick. We need to raid a dungeon that some monsters have called home. You up for some hunting?”

Niraya nods. “Just point me in the direction I will do what I can!” Jazz chuckles. “Well, you are eager today. Well come on we need to go to the mountains.” Niraya and Jazz race to the train station. Jazz, of course, won as she was very fast on her feet. Once they were on the train Jazz goes over what information she had on the dungeon they were going to raid. “Monsters have come and gone from this location on a regular basis. But for some reason, these mobs haven’t left yet. They want us to clear it out so they can send in a group to investigate the reason.” Niraya nods to shows she understands.

The train ride wasn’t too long but long enough for Jaxx to kinda...doze off. Niraya had to gently slap her to get her to wake up. They both head into town and after getting some quick supplies they head out for the dungeon. It was some distance away at the base of the furthest peak. On the way there Jazz was humming a little tune of her own. Niraya was listening to it as it was an interesting tune.

It was a pretty easy trip to the furthest mountain peak. They only had to stop on a small handful of occasions to clear the road of some monsters. Jazz was extremely skilled at combat. It made Niraya a little worried that she would disappoint Jazz with how bad she was at combat. Jazz would point stuff out at Niraya during combat which was very helpful.

They arrive at the dungeon and Jazz looks at Niraya. “Last chance to back out.” Niraya chuckles. “With you here, I don't think anything could oppose us.” Jazz chuckles. “That's one way to think of our party. But you need to assume are far stronger than you think they are.” Niraya nods and readies herself and heads through the entrance. The stone walls were covered in moss and some roots. Except for the moss and roots, the dungeons seem to be in great condition. “Niraya something doesn’t sit right with me.”

Niraya stops and looks around if Jazz was unsure about something then caution would need to be taken. Suddenly the walls light up as rows of torches seem to light themselves. A hoard of some sort of insects started to come down the hallway. “Greater Magic Release!” Niraya could feel her power surge inside of her she stands at the ready and focuses. “Maximise Magic! Fireball!” A fireball appears in front of Niraya and she unleashes it. Thanks to Jazz’s boost the fireball was the size of the hallways the swarm of insects was being incinerated. Niraya had to focus to keep the fireball from exploding on the walls.

Once it reached the end and explodes leaving the charred remains she collapses to her knees. “Note to self. Maximize magic takes a toll on ya.” Jazz chuckles. “Mana surge!” Niraya feels some of her mana return to her. “Thanks.” Jazz helps Niraya up and they head deeper into the dungeon. The next room was a huge empty area but there were no other paths out of there. “All those insects for one room?” Jazz looks around just as confused. “Not much of a Dungeon.”

Niraya walks around the room a bit and hears something. She looks around confused. It sounded like wings. “Hey, Jazz do you hear that?... Jazz?” Niraya turns around the room was much larger now and in front of Jazz was a blue-winged humanoid demon creature. Niraya leaps at the demon and it back away. Niraya stays in between the demon and Jazz. “You will not hurt her!” The demon laughs. “But she will hurt you!” Niraya looks at Jazz confused just as she bits into her neck. Niraya pulls herself free and puts some space between her and jazz.

Jazz stands there with her mouth open covered in blood. Niraya notices two sharp fangs in her mouth. “Wh...What did you do!” The creature laughs. “Apparently I claimed a vampire. What a wonderful day….and soon I will have a kitsune as well.” Jazz looks at Niraya her one red eye seemed to have become slit like a demon’s. Jazz leaps at Niraya wanting to consume more of her blood.

Niraya catches Jazz and forces her into the wall. Jazz groans in pain and slides down the wall not moving anymore. Niraya hopped she was just knocked out. Niraya collapses to her knee feeling her adrenaline wearing off. “Well aren't you in a sorry state. You can’t resist me for much longer. Soon enough I will have you!” Niraya stands up and takes a deep breath. She fights through the dizziness and charges at the demon. The demon was using his wings to avoid Niraya. “Keep this up and you are going to pass out. Just make it easier on both of us and give up!”

Niraya stops and collapses to her knees. Her head was spinning her strength was failing her. “So...this is where it ends. Bested by a demon.” The demon chuckles and lands in front of Niraya. “Tis a pity. I really didn’t want to ruin that beautiful figure you have.” he lifts her head up and just before their eyes met a red lance flies into the creature’s back.

The creature lets Niraya go and turns around to see Jazz standing up. “You will regret using me like some toy!” She dashes towards the creature closing the distance in an instant and she bits the demon's neck. The demon takes off into the air trying everything he could to stop the vampire. Punching her, slamming her into the walls, even using fire, but he couldn’t shake her. He eventually collapses to the ground and stops moving. Niraya tries to stand but couldn’t muster the strength. She could only watch as Jazz drains the last ounce of blood out of the demon.

Jazz finishes with her meal and turns to Niraya who was watching her. She walks over to her and helps her up. Jazz was silent wanting to help get Niraya out of the dungeon. Niraya looks at her. “What's wrong?” Jazz doesn’t reply. “You didn’t want anyone to find out you were a vampire?” Jazz nods. “I don’t mind that you're a vampire.” Jazz was silent still. Niraya sighs and once they were outside Jazz leads her to a stream and begins to wash off the blood from both of them.

Niraya watches her thinking of what to say. “Jazz...Your my friend. Nothing will change that.” Jazz stopped for a second before going back to washing the blood off. Niraya slowly drifts off to sleep. She wakes a little bit later. She could see it was late afternoon and that there was someone lying next to her. She looks over and it was Jazz She had her eyes open and looking at Niraya. When their eyes met Jazz sits up. “Are you my friend?” Niraya struggles to sit up but manages to do that and hugs Jazz.

Jazz sits there blushing. “I...I’m sorry. I should have told you….you almost found out about it the other day.” Niraya sits up. “At that store?” Jazz nods. “Yea...i needed a potion to suppress my bloodlust...i’m glad you didn’t stick around then. I was so close to taking a bite out of you.” Niraya hugs her. “It's fine...do the others know?” Jazz shakes her head. “I have done everything I could to keep it from them.” Niraya nods. “I won’t force you. But if they were here they deserve to know.” Jazz breaks free of Niraya and walks over to the fire pit. “Soup is almost ready. You want some?” Niraya nods and they enjoy a simple soup meal.

Niraya was the first to speak up during the meal. “Will I become a vampire since you bit me?” Jazz shakes her head. “No, it's a bit more complicated to turn someone into a vampire. It has to do with a demon contract and whatnot. I only bit you to suck up your blood so you should be fine.” Niraya breathes a sigh of relief. “I don’t think I could take it being a vampire and a CPU candidate.” Jazz chuckles at this. “Welcome to my life.” They both laugh and have a pleasant conversation.

They both take it easy resting through the night. Niraya takes the second guard shift. In the morning Niraya and Jazz pack up the camp and head back to the town. On the way back Niraya couldn’t help but feeling someone watching them. Every now and then Niraya would turn around to see who was watching them. But there was no one there. Jazz was starting to get worried. “Niraya are you sure your ok? You keep looking behind us a little too often.” Niraya doesn’t answer her.

Jazz sighs and they continue on there way. About halfway back to town Niraya grabs Jazz and looks around hearing something. Jazz spots what it was and with her quick reflexes pushes both of them off the edge of the road and down the embankment a bit. Niraya catches herself halfway down Jazz a little bit lower than her. “What the hell Jazz!” Before Jazz could answer a large stream of rocks comes tumbling towards them. Niraya does her best to avoid the falling rocks. Jazz was struggling a bit as she was in the thick of it.

After about a minute the rocks stop falling. Niraya was safe but Jazz ended up caught under a rock. Niraya makes her way down to her. “Jazz you ok?” Jazz looks at Niraya. “I’m fine it just landed in a way to pin my leg.” Niraya nods and tries to free her but the rock wasn’t budging. Niraya hears something atop the embankment causing her to look up. It was that winged demon from earlier. “You should be dead!” The demon laughs. “It takes a lot more than blood loss to kill me!” Niraya summons her weapons and charges up the hill the creature catches Niraya’s arms. “You two are going to be a great prize. But I want you to suffer first!” He throws Niraya back down the embankment.

Niraya lands hard on the pile of rocks and Jazz screams out in pain. Niraya gets up and stands between Jazz and the demon. The demon laughs. “Good! Not going to break easily I see. PERFECT!!!” the demon takes off into the air before dive bombing towards Niraya. Niraya readies herself and tries to stab the demon when he got close. Niraya missed and the demon slams her into the rocks. The rock that pinned Jazz shifts and she pulls herself free. But her leg was in bad shape. “Minor heal!” The demon turns his attention to her. “No, you don't! CORRUPT MAGIC!” instead of healing her leg she caused herself more pain. She screams at the top of her lungs.

Niraya hears her and swipes at the demon who backflips over her. “Nice try!” He grabs Niraya by the neck and drags her into the sky. He puts on a sinister grin as Niraya tries to free herself. She wasn’t making any progress then suddenly they were falling at a fast rate. The demon forces Niraya into the ground with an excessive amount of force. “Now stay here for a bit. I have another toy to play with.” he walks out of the small crater he created and walks over to Jazz who was trying to crawl away. The demon grabs her wounded leg and she lets out a scream as loud as before.

Niraya couldn’t take it. She needed to protect her friend. She could feel her whole body screaming to stop moving but she forces her way through the pain. Niraya charges out of the hole at the demon the demon punches Niraya stopping her in her tracks. “I asked for you to wait. Don’t worry you will get your turn.” Niraya watches as the demon picks up Jazz and begins to torture her. Niraya couldn’t stand up. She needed to make this demon pay for hurting them.

Suddenly Histoire’s voice could be heard. “Martial art acquired. Thousand Cuts!” Niraya pushes herself beyond her limits her body sluggishly responding to her. Niraya readies her weapons. “THOUSAND CUTS!!!” Niraya slashes at the demon who wasn’t expecting Niraya to get up. The demon explodes into dust when he was chopped to bits. Both Niraya and jazz collapse onto the ground.

About 10 minutes later Niraya feels herself getting picked up. She opens her eyes and looks over to Jazz and sees a few people healing her. She looks at who was carrying her and to her surprise it was Brutus. “Bru...tus?” Brutus looks at Niraya and shakes his head as if to say don't speak. Brutus heads up the embankment and puts her down on a carriage before doing the same for Jazz.

Niraya looks over at Jazz who was unconscious. Niraya grabs her hand and closes her eyes. Niraya wakes up the next day in a strange bed. She tries to sit up but couldn’t she had no strength. A woman walks around wearing a white robe with a red plus sign on it. “Ah, you're finally awake. How are you feeling?” Niraya shakes her head. “I can’t get up.” the woman nods and shifts Niraya into a sitting position and uses the pillows to help prop her up. “There you go. Don't try and leave the bed. From what your friend told me you pushed yourself far beyond our limits.” 

Niraya looks at her. “Friend?” The woman nods. “Yes big fellow really fluent with sign language.” Niraya looks over at the nearby beds. “Jazz?” The woman chuckles. “Your other friend is doing fine. She should be back soon... I think she was just going to complete the quest you two accepted.” Niraya looks at the woman. “But...her injuries?” The woman shakes her head. “She is wounded...but refused aid. When she woke up she did everything she could to leave. I haven’t seen her since.”

There was a banging noise coming from the front of the tent. The woman looks over and sees someone. “Well looks like your friend is back...both of them.” Niraya couldn’t look over far enough. They walk over to her. “Brutus pick her up. Were taking her back to the basilicom.” The woman shouts. “NO, YOU WILL NOT! She needs medical aid and I will not let you take her!” Jazz speaks up. “The CPU wants her little sister back.” The woman flinches and bows to Niraya. “Terribly sorry I didn’t realize you were a CPU candidate.”

Brutus picks up Niraya and makes sure she is comfortable. Niraya closes her eyes and just listens to the world around them. She hears them head into the town and the people making strange remarks to what they were seeing. She could hear an airship landing nearby. They apparently rode on this airship back to the basilicom where Brutus drops Niraya off. Niraya opens her eyes when Brutus puts her on her feet. Jazz takes her arm and helps carry her. “Sorry, Brutus. The elevator is too small for you. Brutus didn’t seem to object as Jazz carries Niraya into the elevator and up to the top floor.

Once up there Jazz sits her down on the couch. “You sister is busy with another job and asked for me to take care of you till she can return.” Niraya looks at Jazz who was blushing a bit. “Why are you blushing?” Jazz looks away from Niraya. “I...know of a way to get your strength back...but it's...a little weird.” Niraya smiles at her. “If it's you I don’t mind.” Jazz looks at Niraya. “You sure?”

Niraya nods this seemed to help jazz relax a bit. “Ok..we need to draw a hot bath...where is your bathroom?” Niraya weakly points out down the hall. Jazz gets up and walks to the bathroom and sees the giant hot tub. “HOLY CRAP! Well, that will work.” She gets the hot bath started before returning to Niraya. She picks her up gently and helps her into the bathroom. She sits her down gently on one of the small stools next to the tub. “Ugh... I feel like I need to explain a bit. My mother was a bathhouse maiden and she taught me about natural oil healing techniques. This one... I’m about to do it's...a bit weird. But if you don't want to do this I can just let you sit in the hot water for a bit. I’m sure it will be fine.”

Niraya looks at Jazz her face was red again. “Were friends Jazz. and friends help each other out. If it's really going to help me get my strength back I trust you.” Jazz takes a deep breath and checks on the water. Once that was done she reaches into her bag. Reaching far beyond the bottom of it. And pulls out some bottles and checking the labels on them. She pulls out around 12 different bottles and pours their contents into the hot water. The room was filled with a very pleasant flowery scent.

Jazz strips naked and Niraya could see the various scars across her body that she had collected over the years. Her recent ones were very noticeable. Jazz strips Niraya of her clothing as well and helps her into the bath. Niraya could feel her body go a little numb but in a good way. “Jazz. is being in the water together with you the weird thing?” Jazz shakes her head. “No...it's a bit more intimate.” Niraya looks at her confused but soon found out what she meant. Jazz takes her in close and begins to caress her body. Niraya looks at Jazz’s hands and they were glowing a bit. “Just relax.” Jazz keeps caressing Niraya’s body it felt weird having someone touch her like Jazz was doing.

Jazz was gentle with her hands caressing every inch of her body. Every now and then Niraya could feel a bit of pleasure and does her best to suppress her urge to moan. Jazz looks at Niraya. “You're tensing up. Just relax.” Niraya relaxes and lets out a moan of pleasure. Jazz smiles at Niraya and keeps caressing her. She does this for what felt like an hour. But in actuality was just ten minutes. When Jazz finishes she gives Niraya some space. “There it is done…i’m sorry if you feel violated in any way.” Jazz gets up to leave. “Don’t leave. It felt nice whatever you call what you did. Let us just enjoy this hot water a little while longer.” Jazz chuckles seeing how relaxed Niraya was now. She gets back into the water and keeps an eye on Niraya.

After about five minutes Nirya gets up and stretches. Jazz blushes being able to see all of Niraya at that moment. “Jazz that felt amazing...thank you. You have done so much for me. Yet I have no means of repaying you.” Jazz blushes. “You're welcome... I ask for nothing in return.” Niraya gets back down into the water and over to her. “Don’t be like that. You did something super nice for me. It's only fair I return the favor.” Jazz chuckles. “Guess you already forgotten about saving my life?” Niraya thinks back and shakes her head. “It's all just a blur.” Jazz looks at Niraya and away again with a blush. “You saved my life I just returned the favor.”

Niraya smiles at her. “Alright, we're even for now.” Niraya stands up and starts to dry off. Jazz stays in the water trying to avoid looking at Niraya. Niaya notices Jazz still in the water. “What wrong Jazz.” Jazz jumps a bit. “Its...its because your a CPU and I’m just a lonely vampire.” Niraya sighs. “Just because I’m a CPU doesn’t mean you should give me special treatment. Were friends Jazz. I see us more as equals.” Jazz was surprised what Niraya just said. Niraya smiles at her and goes back to drying her hair. “What I would give for a blowdryer right now. My tail is so hard to dry off.” 

Jazz gets out of the water and walks over to Niraya. “It might not be a hairdryer. But you could try and shake off the water.” Niraya looks at her confuses but tries it. Water splashes everywhere but it was far drier than it was. “Huh... I will keep that in mind.” She finishes drying off before putting on her clothes. She smiles at Jazz and goes into the living room.

A Few minutes later Jazz leaves the bathroom. “Hey uh...Niraya. How do you drain the tub?” Niraya stands up and walks over. “I really don’t know.” They both look at the tub and it was draining. “I guess it just knows?” Jazz shrugs unsure what was going on. They both walk into the living room. “I don't really have much to do.” Jazz thinks for a bit. “Well, I'm supposed to keep an eye on you till Sunny arrives back...OH CRAP Brutus is probably still waiting down there. Jazz quickly gets into the elevator Niraya follows her.

At the bottom of the elevator, Brutus was there with Troy and Noname. “Hey, there’s the healer...sup foxy.” Niraya sighs hearing that nickname from Noname. “Brutus says you two were up there for a while. Doing anything naughty!” both Niraya and Jazz kick Noname in the groin. “She was treating my injuries it just took a while is all.” Jazz nods happy that Niraya didn’t go into detail. Noname chuckles. “I couldn’t tell who kicks harder.” Brutus picks up Noname and slings him over his shoulder. Troy chuckles. “Well, you two seem to be doing well. Brutus and I will get some ice for Noname.” They take their leave.

Jazz sighs. “Thank you Niraya. It's embarrassing to use such techniques on people.” Niraya playfully punches her shoulder. “I know when to be subtle...anyways. We got nothing to do till my sister comes home.” Jazz nods. “Well you seem to be doing well now so...maybe we can go look around town. Walking around tends to help pass the time for me.” Niraya nods. “Sure. but I can’t buy anything. Haven’t really had much luck with quests.”

Jazz chuckles and leads the way. “I meant to ask. How did some solo quests go?” Niraya sighs. “Horrible. The only solo quest I went on ended horribly.” Jazz chuckles. “Come on it couldn’t be that bad.” Niraya shakes her head. “I’m sure I define bad with this one. It starts out ok. Slay some dogoos collect 7 jars of jelly. Well, the dogoos didn’t like my presence and became a royal dogoo.” Jazz chuckles. “Yea they tend to do that.” Niraya sighs. “That wasn’t the bad part. The bad part was my attempt to hurt him only got me stuck inside of him…. I basically drowned inside of it only to wake after I was freed by some copper rank adventurers.” 

Jazz nods. “Well, at least you got the jelly right?” Niraya nods. “Yea I got the jelly. But I failed to deliver it. I got lost in the forest just as a storm was approaching. Unfortunately, I had to take shelter because it was a pretty bad storm. When I tried to contact my sister lighting strike my phone and me. My hand was paralyzed from my phone exploding and the lightning striking it. I was saved by Maria but I don't remember leaving the cave as I passed out right then and there.”

Jazz shakes her head. “Ok, I stand corrected. That was a horrible stack of events for one quest.” Niraya sighs. “You're telling me...well at least our last one went ok...what was the payment?” Jazz jumped realizing she didn’t get the payment yet. “I haven’t picked it up yet. Was so worried about you. You looked like a zombie when we brought you to the basilicom.” Niraya nods. “Yea I was kinda out of it. We can swing by the basilicom again and get the payment.” Jazz nods and they rush back.

Upon entering the basilicom they were met with a rather furious Sunny. “I told you to stay in the basilicom!” She was very angry with Jazz. Niraya gets between them. “I was bored and wanted something to do so we walked around town for a bit.” Sunny looks at Niraya and hugs her. “I’m just glad you're safe.” Jazz goes to turn in both quests. Jazz returns after a minute and separates Niraya and Sunny. “Sunny you're going to kill her if you don't let go!” Sunny lets Niraya go who starts gasping for air. 

Sunny was worried she hurt Niraya. After catching her breath she smiles at Sunny. “I know you were worried. But I would prefer that the quests be more difficult than living with you.” Sunny chuckles. “Yea sorry about that.” a worker walks over. “Excuse me. But Mrs. Niraya. Here is your silver badge.” Niraya looks at it confused. Jazz chuckles seeing Niraya was confused. “We slew an incubus. That is a pretty strong monster in comparison. Well, not for a gold rank. But for a copper rank like yourself. Congrats on skipping the iron rank.” Niraya takes the badge and puts it on.

Sunny looks at Jazz then at Niraya. “If you two want to go do something I don't mind. But I would like her back!” She gives Jazz a serious look. Niraya puts her hand in Sunny’s face. “Drop the tough act you just want me to lay in your lap and have you pet me.” Sunny blushes. “N...Noooo.” Jazz chuckles. “Come on Niraya lets see if find something you like.” Jazz and Niraya explore the town for a bit of a shopping spree.


End file.
